Compassionate Curmudgeon

Abandoned Car?

I live on a dead end street that has three dwellings (well, five, if you count the corner houses) but plenty of room to park. Since most households these days have more than one car, this street becomes the overflow parking lot, usually filled in the wee hours of the night by people who don't live in the neighborhood.

Now that wouldn't bother me except that sometimes these outsiders park in front of my carport, keeping me from moving my car.

For the past several months (at least since April and probably since March), there has been a red Mercury parked directly in front of my gate. Some time in mid-May, I began to wonder what the problem was. Was it an abandoned car? It didn't look like there was anything wrong with it. Its inspection sticker was good until the end of July.

Anyway, a few days ago I decided it was long enough. I went to the Philadelphia city website and reported it as an abandoned vehicle.

Today I noticed a police car parked behind it, so I ventured out to see what was up.

I confirmed with the officer that I was the one who had reported it, but I had no idea if it was really abandoned.

He told me it was a stolen car.

New rule: from now on when I see a car parked in the same location for more than, say, two weeks, it's going to be reported.

BTW, the car has now been removed, presumably to be reunited with its rightful owner, or perhaps the insurance company...