I was at a fast food place for a late lunch after a hike on one of the first truly warm days of the year. Walked out of the restaurant with my iced tea and my book and said, “Hmm, that’s interesting, my car windows are open. I thought I’d closed them.” Reached out of habit for the door handle and opened the driver’s door. “Hmm,” I said, “that’s interesting, the door is unlocked. I thought I’d locked it.” Slid into the driver’s seat, put the book down on the passenger seat, went to put the iced tea into the cupholder, and…
…there was a cloth mask stuffed inside. A highly unfamiliar cloth mask, in a place where I do not usually store cloth masks.
I took another look. The passenger seat was empty (except for my book) instead of being the repository for a snack bag. My brain finally clicked into gear: This is not my car.
I hightailed it out of there in a big hurry. Same make and model as my car. Same color, down to the same shade of blue. Probably the same year. But not my car. I located my car (windows closed, doors locked, no mask, snack bag) across the other side of the drive through. Waited a moment to collect myself. Then drove off.
No one came running out of the restaurant, waving a firearm or otherwise. As far as I can tell, no one noticed me at all. But boy, it could’ve been a very awkward situation…
I’ve tried to open the door of a car that wasn’t mine. I clicked my unlock fob walking toward the car. Got to it and the door was locked. Clicked again. No dice. Looked again and I realized it wasn’t my car.
It wasn’t even the same color. I blame bright sunlight. Not my addled brain.
I’ve had that. Because of the shine, I will sometimes see a burgundy car driving by my house and think it’s my dad’s (relatively new) deep blue car (but not navy). They’re both just shiny enough that I can’t quite make out the color for a bit.
I’ve gotten as far as opening the door a couple of times (unlocked cars around here aren’t unusual); but I suppose one advantage of usually having a lot of miscellaneous stuff in my car is that at least so far it’s been obvious to me at that point that this Nice Neat Car wasn’t mine. Or at least that the particular collection of Stuff wasn’t mine.
Or it could have been the most predictable and adorable MeetCute ever!
My stepmom once called the police because she believed her car had been stolen in a large mall parking lot. The police came and the car was located with no evidence of a break-in. To this day, she claims it was stolen and “returned.” Ummm.
It’s a quite unsettling feeling when it happens, though. When I had a car that was like lots of other people’s, it happened to me once, too. Fortunately, I recognized my mistake at the key fob stage of the proceedings – which was bewildering enough in the moment: “What the --? Oh.”
I’ll see your Awkward and raise you a Potentially Humiliated. My daughter and I were staying in a hotel one time. I left her in the room while I went to the car to grab a few things. Came back up and the door was cracked. Odd. I’m sure I closed it. The shower was running, so I figured my daughter had decided to freshen up. I set my items down and sat on the bed. Wait. What’s a man’s wallet doing in here? Uh-oh.
I’d gotten off the elevator a floor too early. I grabbed my stuff and beat feet. Thank Og the guy was in the shower.
I did something almost as ditzy once. There is a loop trail in the national park that I like to hike through, so I parked my car in the lot that is next to the trailhead, hiked the loop, emerged back into the lot, and … my car was not there where I had left it! I concluded it had been towed for some reason. The helpful tour bus driver who was nearby told me to call the park police, since they would have towed it.
The park police denied having towed a car with my license plate, but they checked their records and claimed it was indeed parked in the lot. After a bit of back and forth with them, it dawned on me that there are two nearly identical lots about a half mile apart, both abutting the loop trail, and that my car was most likely simply in the other lot.
I make no claim to be above ditzy-ness! I’ve done incredibly stupid and personally embarrassing things… just not this particular one. I think yours would be an easy and understandable one to make!
So I’m not the only one who does this! I’ve done this at least three times.
The most recent, I was in a rush, double parked, picking up my kid from school. I grab her, run across the street, open the back door to stuff her in the car only to realize there was a woman in the driver’s seat and this car was curiously missing the car seat that was supposed to be there. Oops. No big deal, I just excused myself and I think my daughter was more embarrassed for me than I was for myself. (She would have been about 6-7 at the time.)
Another time I quickly popped in and out of a 7-Eleven. I got into “my” car, only to realize that, wait, something feels very different about this. This car is much cleaner than I remember my car being and the mirrors are al wrong and … oh …
In high school one of my best friends had one of those boxy early-90s Mustang 5.0s. Gray. So one day walking to another friend’s house, I saw it parked on the street and the silhouettes of two of my friends. They were kinda big guys, liked to wear baseball caps, unmistakable. So I just open the rear door, slide in, and say “hey, what’s up guys!?” To which two unfamiliar faces quickly turn towards me, our eyes lock, and I stutter … “Oh, sorry, I thought you were someone else” and quickly skedaddle out of the car.
Back in the 90’s I had a very basic car. No key fob or power windows, this thing didn’t even have a clock. I had to buy a stereo.
One day I went shopping, came out of the store, used the key to unlock the driver’s side door, stick the key in the ignition…and it won’t start. That’s when my brain turns on and takes in details and little things just aren’t right. There’s a third party stereo, but it’s different. There’s a lot less dust. There’s different stuff in the cup holder.
Bewildered, I get out of the car and lock it again, and see a woman coming towards me warily. She’s wondering why I’m getting out of her car, of course! I explained mine was the same make, model, and colour, and my key actually unlocked hers and I thought this is where I parked. Turns out I was close - there was another car next to us and mine was the next one over.
We actually spent a few minutes trying her keys in my car and vice versa; I think the keys works for doors but not trunk or ignition, but it’s been a long time and I could be misremembering.
Fortunately she found the whole thing as weird and funny as I did.
Strangers in the lot …