My Car Got Stolen

It can't be a pleasant experience to have one's car stolen. That moment when you go out to get in your car to go to work or the store and realize...it's just not there. We take whatever precautions we can. We park where there's security, lock the doors, maybe have an anti-theft device or put our cars in a locked garage. Whatever it is, we put money into our cars and certainly don't want them stolen. At least, most of us take precautions to not have our cars stolen.

I picked up a passenger one day in the early afternoon, a young man maybe in his mid to late twenties. He seemed like a nice guy, polite, clean, and didn't make me wait for him. When he got into the vehicle, he immediately informed me that while he put a nearby gas station as his destination, he actually required a few stops and asked me if that was alright because the app would only allow them to make so many. Sure, I didn't mind. It was a bit of a slow day anyway, and he was a good passenger so I didn't mind the extra stops.

I don't tend to ask my passengers questions about where they're going or why since it's really none of my business. If they'd like to offer up the information, I'll have a conversation with them but I believe that they don't need to explain themselves to me or anybody else. That is why, as the young man gave me verbal directions to drive up and down nearby streets, stopping by a gas station here and a convenience store there, I didn't question why we continually went up and down the same streets as he looked around. I did wonder, however, if perhaps he was lost since he would have me turn around and go slowly back down a street we'd just been on.

After about a half hour or so of this, he had me pull into a convenience store parking lot while he ran inside, the one he had originally put as his stop. I pulled over and waited for him to come out which took several minutes but I again didn't particularly mind since it had been a slow day anyway. When he came back out, he seemed a bit mentally worn out as he got into the car silently. Not sure if he was done or not, I asked if he wanted to head back to his house yet or if he had more stops.

"I'm not sure," the guy - we'll call him Derek - finally said as he glanced around a moment. "Do you want me to wait here for a few more minutes?" I offered instead, trying to not pry but also wanting to get him to wherever it was that he was going. "Can you drive me back up the street again?" he finally asked again. I agreed, quite curious by this point but not wanting to pry. I didn't have to, however, as Derek finally offered up a reason as to his desire to roll up and down the same streets looking at gas stations and convenience stores.

The night prior, a weekend night, Derek had been out at a bar having a few drinks as young men tend to do. He met a girl there, and they hit it off. She didn't have a car or a ride home, and he offered to give her a ride, telling me that he only had "a few drinks" just in case I, his ride share driver, was going to report him for past drinking and driving.

On the way to drop her off, however, they got talking and apparently the girl admitted that she'd lost her car after having an accident and totaling it because she was high and driving at the same time. She had said she'd gone to the bar to meet her "friend" for more drugs (this is before pot became legal in the state) but he'd never shown up and asked Derek if he could take her to her "friend's" house to get them. Derek, being the nice guy he was I suppose, had agreed but first, she was hungry from all of the drinking. Obviously, of course, she needed snacks to fill the time between her drinking and her drugs.

"I didn't really think that one through," Derek said as he explained that he'd pulled over into the convenience store we had just been at to buy her snacks. He'd not only left her in the car alone but left the keys in the car as well and the car turned on. "You...left your keys in the car alone with a girl you just met who was drunk, wrecked her own car, and wanted you to take her to her drug dealer?" I asked slowly, not sure if I had heard the story correctly. "Yes," replied Derek, not particularly seeming upset about the fact, "I came back out, and she had stolen my car." "Well, that's not a surprise," I said simply before I could stop myself, immediately hoping that Derek didn't think I was trying to insult him on his decision making.

I expected Derek to be upset perhaps at himself for making such an obviously poor decision or perhaps at the girl for using him and then stealing his car. Or perhaps simply mad at the decision in and of itself for happening without any particular blame. Derek said that he was hoping that she had just used it to get to her "friend's" house and had brought the car back to the convenience store where she had taken it from since she didn't know where he lived. The reason he had me going up and down all of the streets and stopping by a bunch of other stores and gas stations was because he admitted that she was drunk and may not have remembered which one they had stopped by.

"Would you like me to take you to the police station to file a report?" I offered since I knew he didn't have a vehicle now to get there himself. To my surprise, Derek actually declined my offer, saying he was just going to go back home. It was his choice, really, so I simply nodded and wished him luck with finding his car.

He was not done, however. Derek went on to tell me that he didn't really care. Obviously she wanted a car enough to steal one and since she was "a girl" he wasn't going to file a report and hoped that one day she'd just return it when she was done doing what she needed to do with it. I was surprised by this statement, or perhaps it was just my upbringing, to declare that it was okay to allow somebody to steal cars without consequence, encouraging such behavior but it wasn't my car or my life, so I didn't reply. Despite my silence, Derek continued to talk, saying how he now no longer had a car, how he may have to call off work, hoped he didn't get fired, and how he didn't have money to get a new car or rent one and couldn't even afford the ride share ride he was taking with me; he had asked a family member to pay for it to help him out. Yet he had no desire to file the report on his vehicle to get it back because she was "a girl" and he "believed" in her that she'd return it one day.

I dropped off Derek and went on my own way without a response. I really hadn't one for that situation. Perhaps he is just a very kind soul who would give up his own car to somebody in need. Or perhaps he's just a fool who gets easily hustled by an alcoholic drug-using stranger at the bar just because she's female and the reason he has no money - and now no car - is because this wasn't the first time he got hustled. Who knows?