*Featured image contains photo by Umut Sarıalan
Picture waking up to déjà vu, your car gone again! Now, for most, this is a hypothetical horror, but for a woman in Portland, Oregon, it's a frustrating reality.
The Note One Woman Left in Her Car for the Thieves
Meet "mfiasco," the proud yet weary owner of a 1995 Honda Civic. Her car seems to be a magnet for local thieves, almost like it has a revolving door just for burglars. When asked about the situation, she shrugs it off, stating her first line of defense is never leaving anything valuable in the car. Her coping mechanism? “…as long as it isn’t impounded, I just shake my fist at the sky and then go about my day.”
Acceptance, however, doesn't mean she's ready to play the victim. Locking the car proved useless, so she came up with a quirky and ingenious solution — a glovebox note.
This wasn’t your run-of-the-mill “please don’t steal my car” note. It was a witty guide for the thief, complete with do’s and don’ts. The note started with a humorous acknowledgment, “Hello! If you’re reading this, you are probably stealing my car.”
The tone shifts from potential niceties to a candid admission of financial struggles, “I would love to afford a car that doesn’t get stolen and burglarized all the time, but I’m broke and this is what I’m stuck with. So, you got me. Again. You’re not going to get into trouble for stealing my car.”
How One Woman’s Out of the Box Thinking Worked
But she didn’t just stop there; there was a plea and a favor, “One quick favor: please do not leave my car somewhere it will get towed. If I have to deal with one more impound lot holding my stolen crappy Honda for ransom, I am going to lose my mind.”
The note wrapped up with a win-win proposition for both parties, “Please just leave my old piece of crap car in a neighborhood or something. There’s a note in this envelope; just stick it on the dash or under the wiper. A passerby will see it eventually and call me and then I can come get my car. No cops, no questions asked; I’m not even mad at you.”
So, did this approach work? According to mfiasco, it did! In a triumphant update, she shared, “I left a snarky note in the glovebox of my Honda the last time it was stolen. Just recovered the car from the most recent theft. They read my letter and I think it worked; they ditched it in front of a house this time (YAY).”
It's a quirky tale of resilience and wit in the face of an exasperating situation. As readers, it leaves us not just chuckling but also pondering the unexpected effectiveness of creativity in problem-solving.
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