Have you seen my car?
We’ve all lost things in our lives that make us go a little crazy. I’ve lost my keys, books, glasses, you name it. My cousin lost her glasses on the top of her head once. But have you ever lost your car door? What would cause a driver to leave their door behind? I’ve known people who have lost their entire car, but never just a part of it.
One of my friends went to his car, started the engine and then went back inside the building he came out of. When he returned to his car, it was gone. We questioned him as to where he left it. He was certain he had left it exactly where he was standing. We suggested to him that because he had left it running that someone may have stolen his car. After panic ran through his body, we confessed to moving his car to the other side of the building. It was a lesson that he took to heart because sine that time, he has never parked his car and left the engine running.
One of the things we’ll teach our students at Young Drivers of Canada is how to remember where you’ve parked your vehicle. To make it easier to know where you’ve parked in a large parking lot, we suggest to park near a light post. This helps you find your vehicle, even if you’ve entered one door to the mall, but came out another.
Many years ago I decided to get the interior of my wife’s car cleaned professionally. She took my car to work, which was a very large mall. Once I was done with her car, I took it to the mall to trade vehicles with her as I needed my car to teach some lessons later that afternoon. I told her which light post I parked it near and when she left the mall, she found it immediately. Knowing exactly where to look made it easy to find.
The other advantage to parking near a light post is that when it gets dark outside, the light from the light post will help to protect your vehicle from vandalism or theft.
I know of someone who “lost” his car when he came out of the mall. It wasn’t where he thought he left it. His friend suggested he hit the alarm on his key fob so he could track it down that way. That didn’t work either. Now he was panicking, until he realized he walked to the mall that day. Even then, it’s always a good idea to know where you’ve parked your car!
Someone selling a truck cap, Lawrence or Eglinton I think, built a wood structure to hold it up, complete with footings. I know its not a lost door, or an unfound car in a parking lot, where you remember the giant letters or numbers on the lamp post, but it is an odd site to say the least.
My mother has a notoriously bad memory. I used to have to remember where she parked her car when we would go to the mall. Eventually we found a strategy that she could apply to help her:
Try to park at (or near) the same place every time when she goes to that mall.
Now she only ‘loses’ the car when she forgets to apply the strategy, which is far less frequent than before.