and, of course, driven away.
My list over the last year is:
Cordless phone.
Dog seatbelt.
tim hortons blueberry bagel.
spare keys (although those miraculously remained after three hours of highway driving)
each time, I feel dumber than a sack of turnips, yet it keeps happening.
A quart bottle of Kahlua and milk.
In my early driving days, I was notorious for leaving the gas cap on the roof of the car. I know I had to replace them at least three times, and there could be another time or two that I’m repressing. I can’t understand why the gas cap that is attached to the car with the little strap doesn’t make more of those lists of Mankind’s Greatest Inventions. 
I personally rate it at least #3.
Gas caps, of course. Beverages. My favorite leather hat.
If we remove the “and driven away” or amend it to: “and remembered about it in the nick of time but still suffered pangs of guilt for years” I can add my son to the list. :smack: (Overflowed sewer, couldn’t set his carseat on the pavement to get the door open, so I put it in the center of the roof of the car. And…well…you can guess the rest. Had the car started and everything, but remembered before I drove off.)
My wife left her white purse on top of the car at one of the Illinois Tollway (I-90) oasis (the Belvedere Oasis). We drove a mile down the road when she couldn’t find it, so we had to drive about 10 miles east to the next exit, pay the toll to exit and turn around, drive 20 miles west (and pay a toll) to the exit where we could turn around and go east again (and pay another toll), and back to the oasis.
Thinking she left it in the bathroom or in the building, we went inside and asked, but no one saw it. We were bummed out and started driving down the road, when 50 feet down the ramp, next to the orange cones with the white sandbags, we saw her purse. It looked just like one of the sandbags…
Wallet, of course. Got the wallet back, sans money.
I don’t think anybody’s going to top *WhyNot, but I’ll go ahead, anyway.
I, too, have lost countless gas caps, cups of coffee, and packs of cigarettes. My best friend left her favorite boots on top of my car and I drove away, but that was totally her fault.
Luckily, these days, I can’t even reach the roof of my car.
I also leave my coding tags on top of the car sometimes, and forget to preview before driving away. sigh
One time my wife asked me to meet her at her work so we could try out a new restaurant she wanted to show me. She said for me to follow her to the restaurant, and then got in her car.
While getting her keys out, she set a whole stack of books and papers on top of her car, and then drove off, leaving me to scramble to retrieve them before they blew away.
Of course, by the time I got them gathered up she was long gone, and I had no idea where the restaurant was, so I just drove home.
She arrived a while later, mad at me for not following her, until I showed her the pile of papers.
Leaving my dorm years ago, I saw a car drive by with a large, beautiful, cut class serving tray on the roof. I got in my car, took the same path and then saw at the next stop sign a large, unbeautiful assemblage of cut glass pieces throughout the intersection.
Kinda along the same line (only lower), my wife and I went into town from our vacation cabin to get some supplies. Committing her most flagrant brain fart ever, as we got back in the car my wife stepped out of her shoe but, distracted by something, failed to retrieve it from the curb before we drove off. Please, don’t ask me to explin that one because I can’t. Anyway, we get to the cabin and she realizes she’s just wearing one shoe and vaguely remembers stepping out of the other back in town.
So, after giving her the “you did what?” look we turn around and drive all the way back into town. Now the town, LaVeta, was having a problem with scavenging bears that year because PETA or some similar org had bought all the hunting licenses, no bears were culled and, starving, they’d made their way to the town’s trash cans. We’re driving back into town and, up ahead, we see her shoe but there’s something next to it. As we pull up we realize that right next to my wife’s empty shoe on the curb is a great big pile of bear shit. It looked for all the world like a bear had snatched her out of her shoe, eaten her, and then shit her out on the curb.
Okay, to me it did.
I left my little wallet/key holder on top of my car. My car keys were on a different key chain becasue I had just had the car repaired. I had just hopped on the upper deck of the interstate when they flew off. :smack:
The wallet had everything in it, credut cards, id, etc . so I walked back along the shoulder waiting for a break in traffic to grab it. Just as I neared it, a car ran over it and the cards went everywhere. ARGH. I did manage to grab my licence, student ID, and two credit cards by basically dodging traffic. (in retrospect, this was very, very stupid)
Then, I saw my keys all the way on the other side of traffic. There was no way I was gonna run across two lanes and an on ramp so I got back into my car, went up an exit and came back around. The inside shoulder of the elevated freeway (I35 at Airport for you Austinites) is only four feet so I squeezed my car as close to the rail as possible and then climbed out the window, onto the rail which was about forty feet above the freeway below. :eek: Very, very scary. I climbed down the hood and got my keys. Yay!
But the whole thing was really stupid and dangerous thinking back on it. I wouldn’t do it the same way again…
Two dozen turtles. No, not live turtles- caramel pecan type turtles. They’d been put on a cookie sheet and placed on top of the mini-van so that they would cool so that they could have the chocolate part added. Then Mom had to go pick up my brother and headed out. On her way back, she saw what looked like a cookie sheet and thought “That’s funny, That looks like a cookie sheet-oh CRUD” She managed to retrieve the cookie sheet. The candies were a lost cause. Ever since then, candies cooling in the garage go INSIDE the car.
Well this wasn’t on top of my car, but I left an open beer can on my rear bumper while driving about 10 miles through town. Don’t worry… the can stayed on the bumper and was ready to be consumed upon arrival. Oh, amazingly no police saw
I left my grandfather’s credit card on the hood of the car.
I was getting ready to leave on a camping trip when I was in highschool with some friends. He put the credit card on the hood as I packed up the car and told me 3 times not to forget it.
I finished packing the car up, said my goodbyes and drove away. I drove away down the dirt road at our cottage, got to the turn in the road to get on the highway and remember the credit card.
I was in panic mode. So I drove up and down the road for about 20 minutes looking for it. Found it too, thank goodness. I didn’t tell him about that until about 5 years ago. heheh
A suitcase. I was leaving on a 300 mile road trip to go to a friends wedding. I didn’t realize until I got there.
I had to buy all new clothes for the the 4 days trip.
When I got home, I posted signs around the neighborhood to see if anyone found it. Luckily someone had and I got everything back.
I’m surprised how many things can stay on the bumper. I left the keys and registration to the Boston Whaler I was towing on the bumper. Found them still there, and the hitch unlocked too after driving down the Garden State Parkway.
Hooray I’m not the only on. A few weeks ago I took a trailer a few miles down the road to drop it off at a friends house. On the back bumper of my pickup was the keys and padlock for the hitch.
An extra-large Tim Horton’s English toffee cappuccino. In Kapuskasing. In summer.
There were bugs everywhere.
Ha! Funny that you’ve started this thread. Last Saturday, after going to the gym, I stopped at Chevron to fill the car up.
I took out my gas card, swiped it, and went to put it in my back pocket like usual-- but alas! I had on gym pants with no pockets, so I set the card on the roof of the car.
I pumped my gas, got in the car, and drove off to the grocery store…where I realized I forgot my card.
Good times.
I had 2 major “left it on the roof incidents”.
When my 1st born was less than 1 we left her diaper bag on the roof to head up to Great Grandma’s in NYC. Luckily, I stopped for gas and the attendant said, “You know I don’t think that bag will stay in the roof rack without being tied down”.
My wife left it on the roof, but as the driver it was definitely my responsibility.
When I was about 19, I was at a division party (Navy) with kegs. I actually left my beer on top of the car and pulled out of my spot.
This was stupid, I was definitely drunk, I definitely should not have been driving and
I got pulled over immediately by a Base Cop who said: “I think you left something on the roof”.
He then proceeded to make me take a sobriety test, which I somehow passed and I don’t know how.
He asked me if it was my drink on the car and if I was drunk and if I thought it was a good idea to be driving.
I replied, “Yes, it is my drink, I am drunk and I shouldn’t be driving, thank you for stopping me”
He did a double take, asked my passenger if he was sober enough to drive back to the boat (an entire mile).
He was and did. He let me go with a warning not to do it again and a thank you for your refreshing honesty. (This was around 1985 or 1986)