GOD IS GREAT!

Short story...GOD IS GREAT
AND MY CAR WAS RECOVERED!




If you're up for the long story read on...

At the school where I work, there are two other people, besides me, that own Honda CRV's. One of them, we'll call him, "George," had co-signed on a car for his son, but the son had been delinquent on his payments and the bank sent a tow truck to repossess it. "George" didn't drive the CRV to work yesterday, so all they saw in the parking lot was mine and without checking either the license plate number or the VIN number they took it. This happened at 2:30 yesterday. Some people saw this happen, but didn't know the car was mine.

I walk into the parking lot at 3:00 and froze. I looked left, I looked right...my car was no where to be found. I freaked out! We had a school police officer, "Terrific Tom," that tried to help me, but he told me I needed to call 911 right away. I did and then I called my husband (WHO WAS WONDERFUL BY THE WAY!) and he called the insurance company for me while I waited for the officer to show up. The assistant principall waited with me for an hour until the officer showed up and took my brief statement. I told him all the identifying information and that I knew it had been taken between 11:30 and 3:00 because I had come back from McDonald's at 11:30. I knew it was locked because I had put my food down on the ground, to click my key twice, to make sure it was locked before I walked in the building. Luckily, I had nothing of value in the car. The officer told me that they put my information in a data base and then just wait, but that most likely my car was half way to Mexico by now.

After I was done with cop (thank you Officer Padilla), the assistant principal drove me home. Richard gave me a big hug...boy that felt good, and we then called back the insurance company and gave them the report number and got signed up to get a rental for the next morning. I realized that my garage door opener and my registration was in the car, so whomever stole it now knew where I lived. So, my neighbor, Bill helped Richard change the code on the garage door opener.

The rest of the night, Richard and I spent deciding what we were going to do. I also spent a few minutes crying and being hugged. Thinking I would never see my car again, we looked up Kelly Blue Book, to see what I'd get for the replacement value and we looked on CARMAX to see what used cars were out there that we could afford. We've been so diligent in saving and only having one car payment and now all we could think was that we'd have to go back to two car payments and wouldn't be able to save for the baby and my maternity leave. So, much was going through our heads. We were dazed and in shock. We barely ate our dinner and between the two of us we might have got 2 hours sleep, but I certainly prayed a lot.

Then this morning as I'm getting ready for the ENTERPRIZE people to pick me up, the secretary at school calls me and tells me about people seeing a tow truck in the lot around 2:30.  "George" gets on the phone and tells me the story about his son and how he had spoken to the bank and they were on there way now with my car and they were going to deliver it to my house. Right after I hung up the phone, the corporate offices of the towing company that took my car called and they said they were so sorry....

Let me stop here for a moment and say...I AM NOT A CALM OR DIPLOMATIC PERSON WHEN I FEEL I'VE BEEN TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF!

...back to the story...

Over the next hour we had multiple, lengthy conversations where she, let's call her "Snippy Sue," tried to say I would have to sign off when the car was delivered to me, that they would give me $500 for my trouble, where I explained I was not signing anything and I wanted the car towed to the dealership, where my husband works, and that we would have an inspection, that they would pay for and we would go from there. "Snippy Sue" wanted me to call the cops to say the vehicle had been recovered and I informed her that this would happen when my husband actually saw the vehicle. She wouldn't give me a local number or address, but I got the ones for the corporate offices in California. This is the "PC" version of our exchange.

I've also been on the phone with my insurance agent, we'll call her "Wonderful Wanda." She's been amazingly helpful, gave me numbers to call for the Public Regulation Commission and the Consumer Complaint Office and has offered great support and advice. She told me that, if we wanted to, we can also file theft charges on the towing company.

The third person I want to mention is "Terrific Tom," the school police officer. He called back this morning and is doing some checking for me to find the local tow company.

The car is now being inspected at the dealership and an officer has to go out to do a recovery report on the car before my husband can drive it home.

I want to thank all of you too.  I have got a lot of comments since 3 am and they have been very supportive. Thanks.

The saga isn't quite over, but if all goes well, I'll have my car back tonight! ISN'T GOD WONDERFUL?! SEE WHAT A LITTLE PRAYER CAN DO!