Vincent's Big Adventure
It's annoying to get one parking ticket. But how about 29 tickets? All on a stolen car that just happens to belong to you.
(I really couldn't make this up if I tried.)
At about 7:45am on Wednesday September 26th I walked into the parking garage of my apartment complex and was greeted by an empty parking spot. I panicked. Maybe my car was towed, or I forgot where I'd parked. But no...Vincent was stolen (yes, my car is named Vincent).
I immediately called the police - an officer arrived about 30 minutes later to take my statement and file a report. The time on my copy of the report is 8:40am. About two hours later Vincent was parked in a disabled zone on 511 Union and marked by DPT (department of parking and traffic). It was ticketed at 2:37.
I could let that one slide...because maybe it takes a while for the info that my vehicle was stolen to upload to their computers. But the very next day Vincent received another ticket on 21st avenue at 1:05pm. And another on Friday at 1522 Grant at 12:37pm. And again on Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday all on the 1500 block of Grant Ave. (Sunday is a day of rest for the DPT).
Don't you think DPT would have put two & two together? I have 29 tickets from only four streets: Grant Ave, 21st Ave, Union St, and Harriet St.
The parking tickets after I pulled them from the glove box.A hip hop mix CD was in the car's player (photo by Missy)
Now you're probably wondering how I obtained all this information.
On Tuesday October 23rd I received three parking tickets in the mail. I called the police - the officer with whom I spoke was shocked. She couldn't understand why DPT didn't check the license plate. If they had, Vincent would've been recovered hours after the theft. The woman from SFPD said that's just laziness on the part of DPT, because the meter readers are supposed to call in a license plate before they issue a ticket.
So I called DPT to find out why no one had checked the license plate before ticketing the car. The person on the phone had no good answer, but apparently the DPT database and the police database aren't linked! She also told me that the meter readers hand write the tickets (which isn't true), so they can't check the plate! And I could contest my parking tickets! Sorry? If DPT had actually been doing its job, I would've had Vincent back the same day it was stolen!
On Friday October 26, my friend Missy and I turned detective - we were determined to find Vincent.
Our first stop was 10 Harriet (the location of the last ticket - at least DPT was helpful enough to give me the address). We drove down Harriet and also checked some of the side streets in the area. No luck.
North Beach was our next stop - most of the tickets were given on the 1500 block of Grant, but Vincent wasn't there. We checked the 500 block of Union, and continued to drive around North Beach for another hour. Saw many black Hondas, but no Vincent.
We stopped to get Italian food and then did one more loop of the area on foot (we had to work off the ravioli). Still nothing.
We made a trip to Trader Joe's and decided to check Harriet again before calling it quits. We drove down the first block of Harriet and crossed Folsom to check the second block. As we crossed Folsom I saw a black Honda Civic on the corner of Folsom at 6th. It was too dark to read the plate.
We drove around the corner to check the car - I remember saying something along the lines of "it's probably not mine, but we should check it anyway." We'd been driving around three hours by this point and we were tired.
We pulled up to the car saw the license plate...it was VINCENT!
Missy parked directly in front of Vincent and I called the SF Police - then we drove across 6th and pulled over to wait for the squad car (we figured it wasn't safe to park so close in case the thieves were nearby). Now we were officially on stakeout (sans donuts and coffee).
It was an hour before the police arrived.
We would have been here sooner, but we were abducted by aliens.The police didn't even search the car before releasing to me...and in the process of filling out the paperwork, they lost my driver's license. There's barely any damage to Vincent, but the thieves stole most of the stuff in my trunk, reprogrammed my radio stations, and left some crappy hip hop CD in the car.
But the reunion was a happy one, and the next day Vincent got a well-deserved bath.
de-hip-hopping Vincent (photo by umlaut)- Vincent - NOFX
- Robber - The Sonics
- Out There - Dinosaur Jr.
- Looking For Lewis & Clark - The Long Ryders
- In Between Days - The Cure
- Keep The Car Running - The Arcade Fire
- It's All I Can Do - The Cars
- Lovely Rita - The Beatles
- San Francisco's Doomed - Crime
- Drive - Fu Manchu
- Police Story - Black Flag
- Fucker - The Brian Jonestown Massacre
- Over The Hills And Far Away - Led Zeppelin
- A Quick One While He's Away - The Who
- Hold On! I'm Comin' - Sam & Dave
- Folsom Prison Blues - Johnny Cash
- Long May You Run - Neil Young
- Head On - Jesus & Mary Chain
