This story already happened a couple of months ago (over the 4th of July week-end) but it is just too funny to pass up. We were invited to our friends’ house in a close by neighborhood to attend the 4th of July parade and hang out at their house thereafter. Since my taste for crowds is unchanged (I don’t like them) I opted to skip the parade and join MrsM and Ro later at our friends’ place. When I drove there after the parade had finished I thought I would stop by where the parade ended to pick them up and drive them too their car (which would be a couple of hundred yards away from were the parade ended). As I drove down the hill I was looking for MrsM’s spanking red Mini Cooper S convertible but couldn’t see it parked anywhere. Shortly after I saw MrsM and Ro walking up the hill towards me. I honked my horn and waved them over. As they boarded the car MrsM described her parking location – right on the street where I came from. I was pretty sure I hadn’t passed the Mini on the way down but MrsM was confident of her parking location. As we approached the described location there was no red car anywhere. Hmm. Did it get towed? Did somebody else like the Mini Convertible as much as we do? Thoughts of a stolen car crossed my mind. Shortly after more adrenaline rushed in realizing that I had canceled my full coverage insurance on that vehicle some six months ago. We would have to pick up the tap for the car ourselves – ouch. I tried to stay calm and rational, but I have to admit that was hard. We stopped and got out of my car to ring a neighbor’s door bell where the Mini was parked before, but nobody was home. Had the car been towed? But there were no “No Parking” signs anywhere to be seen! Special rules for the parade? Maybe some strange neighborhood ordinance that got enforced? Unlikely – and our friends weren’t aware of any such rules either. So we switched to the last resort: calling the police – it was’t an emergency so 311 was our number (instead of 911 for emergencies).

The first person on the line didn’t know anything about a towed Mini Cooper. Well, time to file a report for a stolen vehicle I thought. But after 5 long minutes on the phone with the police our car showed up on a list of cars at an impound lot (where car’s get towed to – way out of town). Interestingly when we called the private towing company they again didn’t have a record of our car. Frustrating. Called again 311 to confirm the towed vehicle. Only to be put on hold again and finally being connected to the impound lot that had our car.

But one mystery remained; why was the car towed? Turns out when the police arrived responding to a local 911 call they found the vehicle out of gear in the middle of the road on a  hill – ooops! So glad it didn’t run into any other vehicles and/or persons on the way down before having turned 90 degrees  perpendicular to the slope. There’s a reason why San Francisco city ordinance requires the wheels turned all the way when parked on a hill. Good practice!

So finally after driving 20 miles out of town to the impound lot in the boonies and paying $200 in cash we had our beloved Mini Cooper S Convertible back. A reminder to maybe keep full coverage on such a high profile vehicle.