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DAVE’S WORLD
By David Howell
Your Herald reporter missed one of the best stories in Water Valley in a long time. I only missed it by a few minutes and after talking to multiple “sources,” I can share the details. This unusual event happened last Thursday during the lunch hour as the men gathered at their usual dining spot at the round table at the B.T.C. Old Fashioned Grocery.
The guys have been meeting there for more than a decade, and the “Old Man’s table” is reserved for us. The table talk ranges from football to politics and sometimes it is not for the faint of heart. Meaning you better be able to take it whether you dish it out or not!
I left the table around 12:30 headed back to the office minutes before the excitement broke out. A lady from Oxford finished her meal and went outside to discover her car was gone. She went back inside to report that her car that had been parked by the front door was stolen in broad daylight.
After a few minutes of sleuthing, the details were sorted out. She explained that a white Subaru similar to her car was parked one spot over from the vacant slot where her car had been.
Thankfully, in a small town most of us know what everybody drives and it didn’t take long to determine that it was simply a case of mistaken identity. One of the men from our table got in the wrong Subaru and drove home. Apparently the key fob from the missing Subaru was inside the vehicle, and it immediately cranked when he pushed the start button.
Wait – it gets even better. The driver noticed a warning light was on due to low tire pressure, so he put some air in the tires when he got home – still oblivious that he left in the wrong car when he went inside.
Minutes later someone from the store reached out to his step-son, who looked out in the driveway and said, “Yep, there is a white Subaru outside with Lafayette County license plates.”
The car was returned and the lady was appreciative of getting her car back in better shape than she left it. If only I had been there, can you imagine a few good pictures to accompany this – hopefully next time.
When I told my wife, she promptly told me it sounded like something I would do. Not me, I countered, I have too many newspapers in my car and there is no way I would not notice something was amiss. But she was partially right, I remembered the time I drove to the B.T.C. and ate lunch and walked back to the office. Several hours later I went outside to get in my car and couldn’t find it. Admittedly it took a few seconds of head-scratching to sort it out. The parking lot mishaps are common too, I can’t tell you how many times I have opened the door on the wrong vehicle. When this happens I ease the door shut, start whistling and look around hoping nobody noticed.
Tom Byars told me he got in the wrong truck one time at the grocery as his dog, who was in the back of his truck, watched him.
Yep, don’t sweat it Jerry, it happens to the best of us!
