This is the epitome of MPSIMS: I have no idea why anyone would care about this, or would say in reply, but I’ve told my wife and a friend, and it’s so odd I just have to tell someone else.
The other day, I drove over to my wife’s school, and we went home together in her car. My car sat in the school parking lot for a few hours in the early evening until a friend drove me back to pick it up.
When I got in, the car smelled of cigarette, or possibly cigar, smoke. Needless to say, I don’t smoke.
So apparently, during those few hours, someone got in the car and had a smoke. It was cold and a little rainy, and I probably left the driver’s side door open, since I’ve always thought of the area as relatively safe. (That, and the car is a POS that I would not mind having stolen.)
Nothing was damaged, stolen, or disturbed. I keep a partial roll of quarters in the center console for parking meters: it was still there. There was nothing else of value inside, except a set of jumper cables in the trunk, also untouched.
I think this is a possibility. My the campus where I work is non-smoking, so the smokers are shunned to the curb. I parked at the edge of the parking lot one day to try and grab some shade there, which is near to and downwind from one of their hangouts. I always roll the windows up tight, even in summer. Lo and behold, when I got in my car at the end of the day it smelled like smoke inside. Took a few days of driving with the windows partially open to remove the smell.
Don’t leave your car unlocked in strange parking lots overnight.
Thieves look for the easiest target. You’re lucky nothing worse happened. Not meaning to harp, but I don’t care how safe an area is. It’s not remotely intelligent to leave your car unlocked unless it’s in your locked garage.
My WAG… go back at roughly the same time and day and look around the parking lot. I’ll bet you will find a car parked there nearby that very closely resembles yours. Guy runs out to his car to take a quick smoke break… lights up just before getting into his car… sits down, maybe pulls out his key to listen to the radio… puffing away… radio doesn’t come on… looks around confused… sees roll of strange quarters in center console… notices the pine tree air freshener is missing from his rear view mirror… OH CRAP, THIS ISN’T MY CAR! Sheepishly and quickly exits your car and leaves it full of his smoke.
When I was in high school I left my car unlocked one day and came back to discover the exact same thing. Nothing stolen, just (extra) cigarette butts in the ashtray and a photo torn in half. My friend said he saw some dudes from school sitting in my car, smoking. A car is a better place to hide and smoke on school property. Does your wife work at a high school? Because it might have just been some kids.
I smoked for 19 years and have been quit for 5. I’m very sensitive now to cigarette smell. This week I got in my car and immediately smelled cigarette. This confused me greatly, as I am the only person that has driven the car lately, my hubby doesn’t smoke, and I lock it when I get out. It bothered me the whole way to my destination that I was going crazy because there was no way my car could smell cigarette-y.
As I was getting the the car the next time, I looked down on the floorboard and there was a cigarette butt that I had tracked in on my shoe when I got in for the previous trip. Mystery solved. It took a couple more days to air it out though.
This. I left my car in an airport parking garage, locked up tight. When I came back, everything was as I left it, still locked, nothing disarranged, the seat position not changed (I have short legs, so no one of normal size could have gotten in without moving it), junk on other seats not moved. But it stank of cigarette smoke, and I had to keep the windows open, in winter, to get rid of the stink.
When my parents started their business, they had one other partner who was with the company for 5-6 years. He grew to abhor my stepmother, so much that he stepped down in 1989.
Negotiating his severance package (he was President) he said he wanted the company car he was provided, a Jaguar. My stepmother (who treats people like shit, which is why he left) refused to give him a car, telling him he must turn it over by (date made up) March 31st, 1989.
The partner, pissed off, hired somebody to sit in the car for 24 hours, doing nothing but smoke in the vehicle with the windows up. When he turned the car in, my stepmother, smiling vindictively, got in it, got a deep whiff, and promptly vomited.
Back in the day a friend and I were driving down the Main street. My friend flicked his butt out the window, and it went right in the open window of a car parked along the street. He was pretty embarassed getting out and running back to check, and sure enough it was still burning on the carpeted floor of the car. This was when we were about 17 and foolish. I would never allow smoking in my car now, and my buddy learned his lesson about tossing butts. I imagine that car owner wondered WTF the stink was and where that weird burn mark in his carpet came from!
