I'm Getting Old

So yesterday I left work rather quickly, since my wife needed the car for the evening for a meeting which was one of those mandatory workshop type of things. I also needed to carry a rather large box (actually it was very large - it was empty, but I needed it to ship a 160-pound server) back to the car. Since last month, I started parking underground at a condo complex about a 5 minute walk from work. I decided to park there as it was on the way home, rather than the other spot at which I used to park, which was 10 minutes the other way. So here I am lugging this big huge box down the stairs of the parking garage and I get to my parking level and walk to my car.

My car was not there.

My first reaction was panic. I only parked here for a month! They promised 24-hour-security, and keycard controlled access to each level, and more! For what I'm paying to park there each month, I expected the "more" portion. Needless to say, I was quite irritated. Just to make sure that I didn't park at the wrong level, I took the stroll down to the level below me via the stairwell, and checked (somehow my keycard worked for that level as well). All the while, walking around with my rather large box (something in which you can probably fit Yo-Yo Ma's cello or whatever it is that he plays). People who parked their cars started looking at me funny, especially the fact that I may have looked rather suspicious, walking around a parking garage in a confused state, carrying a big empty box around, all the while looking left and looking right and turning around and walking some more. I also had on my green army jacket and black ball cap, so I'm sure I didn't look like a traveling businessman who was lost.

When I was convinced that I had not mistakenly parked my car (I mean, come on now, I am not senile here), I went back to the main level and called the person who manages parking for that condo. Unfortunately, my cell phone, of all the times for it to be running extremely low on batteries, had to choose that afternoon to deplete itself of power. I advised the manager lady that I was low on battery and she put me on hold *sigh* and said she she'll call me back, once she checks with security. A few moments later after checking the garage again, lugging this big server box all the while, she calls me back and leaves a VM (which drains the battery even more, since I now have to go through the rigamarole of doing several key sequence presses) and indicates that she had a chat with security and they did not call a tow truck to tow my car.

I was exasperated. I responded to her, "well then, it's obviously stolen then. So much for your 24 hour security!" I probably should not have added that last part, as I am sure it wasn't terribly helpful information, but you know - you get frustrated and say stupid things. She suggested that I call the police, and I did, but not before calling my wife to inform her that our beloved Nissan Sentra has fallen into the hands of people with questionable personal integrity and ethics. My wife said that she will call her co-ordinator to advise her of the situation.

The cops showed up and I gave them the whole story. They thought it was strange that a private parking spot was somehow compromised and no one knew about it, especially given that the private parking floor has keyed controls to get in. They said they will talk to the security desk to see if they can get some camera views to see who may have taken the car, but in the meantime, they wanted to confirm that I didn't park on the wrong floor. I was flustered, and told them that I checked the floor below me and no I did not park on the wrong floor. They asked if I checked the floor above me and I told them I didn't need to since it looks totally different than my floor and there was no way I'd mistakenly park there. If nothing else, IF I was foolish and senile enough to park somewhere else, it would have been on the floor below me, which was an exact replica of my floor.

They also asked me why I was carrying an empty box around with me, the size of half a refrigerator. I told him that I needed it to ship out something though I mistakenly did not tell him what it was (I wonder whether he thought I was an arms dealer, given my otherwise military jacket). I can tell he regarded my story as fishy, even though it was the truth. I'm willing to bet at that point, he wondered whether I actually had a missing car.

You know cops - being cops, they wanted to be thorough, so they said, "jump in the cruiser and let's check the floors". So I did, after putting the box snugly into his cruiser's trunk, and inhaled the smells from the backseat of what I was sure to have been from many suspects who were inebriated or otherwise. The first floor that they visited was floor number two, directly above my parking floor. "Where do your normally park, sir?" he asked. I indicated by my hand gesture that it was "over there", at which point he drove in that direction towards a little black dot in the distance.

At that point, I started to curse in my mind, since I knew what was coming next. I had some serious backtracking and apologizing to do, and I knew that I would need to implement them within a few seconds. However, the officer beat me to the punch. "Sir, is that your car?" he said, knowing full well it was, since it was the only damn car in that area at that time of day. "Uh, yeah..." I said, and proceeded to start regurgitating apology after apology.

"I'm really sorry, officer...but I thought..."

"I am not sure what happened here"

"I'm so sorry for the inconvenience..."

"I feel like an idiot here..."

"Haha...I must be getting old"

I suspect that, based on his facial demeanour, he neither found any solace or humour in my attempts to apologize for wasting his time. However, as a true professional, charged to serve and protect, he kept his mouth shut, and dropped me off at my car, with only a statement of "you'll want to check the other floors next time." I wasn't about to argue, so I nodded in agreement and once again apologized. He then drove back towards the ramp, heading back to the security desk to pick up his partner, for what I am sure, will be an expletive-laced conversation on the way back to the station or their next destination.