I had a tire blow out the other day as I was driving my brother’s car (no, not a Firestone), and the first thing I did was call my brother at home to ask if he could arrange someone else to come pick me up (since he neglected to keep a spare in the trunk). It took a few minutes for me to get through to him, but when I did, he said that a tow truck company had just called his house to confirm a tow. He assumed that I had called this towing company before I called him, but I didn’t. So how could they have possibly known? Did they spot my car on the side of the road and look up the license plate number? Is there some kind of automatic signal given out by newer cars in the event of distress? What?
Aside from General Questions, I’m inclined to repeat this story in IMHO’s Very Vaguely Creepy thread . . .
If his car has Onstar (or whatever it’s called) or a similar onboard computer with radio system, it probably called the main center and they called a tow truck before you discovered ot had no spare. If it had no such system, then I don’t know. And you can quote me on that.
Were you in a area that has traffic camera’s? Here in the Twin Cities there all over the place. Once, years ago, I had a flat on the freeway during rush hour. Within 5 minutes of the flat a highway helper truck and a tow truck showed up. I asked them how they knew I had a problem, the guy pointed a couple hundred feet away to a camera aimed right at me.
Did any cars al all past you while you were on teh side of the road? DO you think its possible that one of these cars had a cell phone?
"hello? ABC towing company?
“yes”
“there is a guy on the side of the road”
“I’m a policeman in an unmarked car. I ran his license plate. His home phone number is 555-5555”
“we’ll go pick him up”
“thanks”
Why didn’t you ask the guy who showed up to tow the car? It’s not too late. Call the company and tell them who you are, and ask how the hell they knew to come get you. I am sure they will be able to tell you.
You know how they say everyone has a twin somewhere? Well, that’s sort of true. The towing company (there’s really only one) clones everyone. EVERYONE. And that clone works in the towing company.
Since your clone has a psychic link to you, he knows when you’re in trouble.
Usually, though, the towing company can hide it better than that…