|
File this one under "truth is stranger than fiction".
Sunday night my parents drove my dad's 1999 Dodge Caravan to church.
When they came out of the service, the van was not there. 
Some helpful young men drove around the parking lot on both sides of the church to make sure my dad isn't turning into a senial old codger who can't remember where he parked.  Nope, his van isn't there anywhere.
Call the police. Van stolen from the church parking lot.
Meanwhile, my sister calls me. "I'm on my way to pick up Mom & Dad at the church. The van was stolen."
Me..."Why on earth would someone want to steal a seven year old van out of all the vehicles there? How odd!"
Sis..."Well, you know Dad's been talking about wanting a new car. The lengths some people will go to!" (teasing, of course)
Back up two hours...
The Choir is practicing the Christmas cantada and one of the members gets sick and passes out. She can't drive, so they call her husband to come get her. She leaves her keyes with another lady and asked her to drive her van home and tells her where it's parked. Choir practice is over, she takes the van to the lady's house (followed by the choir director who brings her back).
(Do you see where this is headed?  )
The choir director's son sees the other van in the parking lot and puts 2 & 2 together. He calls his Mom....Mom, I think you drove the wrong van to Mrs. XXX's house.
Mom - that's not possible. We had the keyes to her van and they fit.
My dad decides to try his keyes in the 2003 Dodge Caravan still in the parking lot.
Lo & Behold, they fit!  He & mom drive the van to her house & get their own. 
The officer on the scene says he's never seen that before! He decides not to file a report since there was no "real" theft. I think he just didn't want to fill out the paperwork on this one and I don't blame him.
We joked with our choir director that we were having her booked for grand theft auto.
What are the odds that two vehicles, five model years apart, parked in the same parking lot, would have the same keys. 
Strange, huh? |
|
|
Truth is stranger than fiction - my dad would say!
Funny how that happened - what are the odds? I
bet the odds of keys fitting another car aren't as
slim as we might think. Didn't we have a thread
like this just a few months ago? Anyone else
remember that?
Shellie |
LOL How funny.....
I wonder how often they really do re use keysets?? |
| Odd but it happens. We had that happen with a car that Doug's nephew owned. Someone got it in, started it up and began to drive away. His nephew went chasing after him and luckily caught him before he left the parking lot. |
| A little hint from the Police person, this happens more than you want to know!!! |
Really??
I honestly had no idea that it was common. I've never seen it happen before. Now I have to wonder what the policy is for keying a car? |
| My opinion is that, especially with older cars, the key does not have to be EXACT to work. Close enough seems to work for cars and Horse Shoes!!!! |
| It's also when you get copies of keys made. Did you ever see the kid at the hardware store cut the key and then give them the big eyeball to judge how close they were? Close enough has been heard more than once from those people!! |
This is really funny. What a great story.
Does anyone know about newer keys? Our 2005 Grand Caravan's keys have some sort of a microchip in them, so if we wanted a copy it would cost us a lot of $$ and we couldn't go to the hardware store for "close enough". Does that mean the new microchips would solve the problem of not-so-unique car keys? |
| The chipped ones are a whole different story. For most remote start systems even, you have to get an extra key to "wore" into the system because it needs the chip to go. |
I stared at your message for awhile thinking you'd missed an "h" in the word "wore". Then I realized you meant "wire".
I must be tired.... |
| Oops. sorry. Yup it was wire! |
OMG!!!!!
This happened to my neighbor too!!!
Last year the entire neighborhood was affectionately calling the 65 year old woman on my block, "the car thief". She loved telling the story over and over again, as we'd all laugh so hard each time we listened to it.
Here goes. She was at the mall, parked her van, went shopping and then got into her van and drove home.
As she was pulling in her driveway she noticed a notebook on the passenger seat. She didn't know where it came from and picked it up. Then the realization hit..this wasn't her van!!!
She didn't want to drive it back so called the police. They too found it amusing and drove her back to the mall to see if perhaps she could find hers. In the meantime the police contact the owner of the vehicle..actually it was the husband who was at home..his wife was at the mall shopping.
Seriously this is real folks..but as he's speaking to the police she pulls up in my neighbors van!!!!
What are the chances that these two woman, with exactly the same year and make of vans would park next to each other???
Police cars and owners all converged back at the mall. A crowd gathered to see what was going on..and driving past was my neighbors sons just in time to see their mom get out of a police car! Another policeman drove the van she "took" back to the mall.
I can't wait to tell her about your story Beau's mom!!!!!!!
This is incredible!! I think she was told that something like one in 2 million keys will fit another van like it or something (for the benefit of would be car theives out there..ha ha)...the chances of that happening are extroidinary! I'm floored it's now the second time of this very funny occurance happening!
Marianne and the boys |
| Wow - that's insane! I didn't know this happened! |
 Ya know this is funny because a few years ago I was with my sister in law and we went to get into what I thought was my car and noticed that my car seats for the kids were not there and than realized it was not my car. Of course I did not know than that if I would not have noticed I might have been able to drive away. How scarey
You would think that they would make these differant.  |
| Welcome to the forum btrflykisses, please do introduce yourself in that section! |
Hello
Sorry for not introducing myself. I am from Sunny Arizona. My name is Edna. I currently do not own an OES however would like to as soon as my husband and I can. We want to wait until we buy a house. Which hopefully will be this summer. Hope to get to know some of you and get some helpful tips. |
Hello All......
Sorry I skipped the introduction.... My name is Edna and my husband and I currently live in Arizona. We have 2 Beautiful little girls Caitlin and Mackenzie... We currently do not own an OES however are planning to get one as soon as we can buy a house which will be later in 2007 so hopefully all goes well. |
btrflykisses wrote:
Ya know this is funny because a few years ago I was with my sister in law and we went to get into what I thought was my car and noticed that my car seats for the kids were not there and than realized it was not my car. Of course I did not know than that if I would not have noticed I might have been able to drive away. How scarey
You would think that they would make these differant. |
|
