A No Good Car Thief
I’ve recently moved house. Surprisingly, I’ve discovered a small corner of Dundee that is quietly well-to-do – certainly judging by the number of surrounding wi-fi networks I can detect. Also, if I strain a little I can see some of the silvery Tay flowing by. It’s a nice area with lots of students and young people about – I still feel like a student, but to them I must be beginning to look like their Dads. I like just about everything here bar the trouble I have trying to get parked.
This morning I noticed something odd as I left my flat on the way to my car. There was a man suspiciously poking about at the side of one of the many parked cars. I know that professional thieves sometimes use special tools, i.e. long thin strips of metal with a hook on the end which they slide down between the window and door frame to release lock (Honest, I saw something on TV once) and at a distance this stranger seemed to be holding something similar.
Being the concerned citizen (my car was parked not far away) I walked up behind the guy until I was just a couple of steps away. I watched for a few seconds as he slid his hand through a narrow gap in the back window (sounds Freudian doesn’t it) and in his hand was a long twig.
“Hello”, I said introducing myself. He turned around, looked flustered for a moment then smiled at me.
“I’ve locked myself out of my car”, he explained, “I’m not a car thief.” and went back to forcing the window down.
As he pushed and grunted I answered, “Yes, if you were a car thief you wouldn’t be using a branch.” He paused for a second and I took the opportunity to disengage myself from any come-back he might offer.
When I reached the relative safety of my own car I mulled over whether or not I should call the police. “No”, I decided. If he was a car thief I’d just humiliated him by suggesting a unqualified lack of professionalism on his part. As if to agree with my conclusion, when I looked round he’d finally given up the struggle and was wandering off … who-knows-where.
