Confessions of a Car Thief

Not once, not twice, but on three occasions I have gotten into the wrong rental car.

It's the strangest thing. It's not so much that I've forgotten what I'm driving. It's that people in the same make and model keep parking next to mine.

The first two incidents happened pretty quickly and I think it was mostly unnoticed by anyone. As soon as I sat inside the vehicle it was very apparent that I was in the wrong place.

The last time it happened was a whole different story.

I had to go to a fabric store to pick up something for one of my stores. I parked in front of the store front which was all glass, of course. As I was leaving the store I hit the unlock button on my key fob and I heard the "beep beep" of the car unlocking. I got into the car and placed my purchase in the passenger seat, then I proceeded to check my Blackberry for new emails. After I was done responding, I started to put my phone in the cup holder, where I always keep it when I'm driving. Lo and behold, there was a McDonald's cup there. I thought to myself, "Did I go to McDonald's today?" No, I hadn't.

In typical Angie fashion, it took several minutes to process this information.
Car. Phone. Cup..... Car. Phone. Cup.....
Wait a second!

I looked around and sure enough, there was my car two parking spaces down.

I got out of the impostor car as quickly as I could manage. I felt quite certain that there was a lady inside the store calling the cops because I was stealing her car.

I watched for them in my rear view mirror the whole way back to the store.