Have you ever gone shopping, come out to the parking lot and when you try to unlock the door of your car, it doesn't work? Then you realize that you're trying to get into the wrong car? It may look just like yours but it's not. It happens to everyone at one time or another.

The first time it happened to me I was at the mall and came out to get into my LeMans. As I was sticking the key in, I noticed a case of Coors Lite in the back. "Why is there beer in my car," I asked my friend? That was when I realized that my key didn't work and this wasn't my car. Mine was parked 2 spaces down.

A few years ago, my grandparents went to the grocery store and my grandpa got tired & decided to go sit in the car. He meandered out to the parking lot and got inside a car, sitting in the front seat. It turned out that that was NOT his car and there were two confused old ladies sitting in the back seat!

The main point of my story here today, though, is the fact that when things like this happen, you realize it because either your key doesn't work so you can't get in the car or it's unlocked. What are the odds that you find a car that looks just like yours AND the key you have works?

I remember a story a few years back where just that occurrence happened; a woman reported her car stolen and it turned out that it had been taken by a lady who owned the same kind of car and her key worked so she assumed it was hers and took off in it. They made a huge deal about what the odds were for that happening. They were astronomical.

But it happened to me, too. It just didn't get the national coverage it deserved. Maybe we should have just taken the car. Anyway, Christina & I had gone into Walgreens for about ten minutes. When we came out, she unlocked the passenger door of her silver Honda Accord first and I got in. There was a pair of gloves on the seat and I moved them, wondering if I had sat on them the whole time and not known it. I unlocked the driver's side door for her and she climbed in.

She stuck the key in the ignition then froze. "Someone's been in my car," she said.

"Huh?"

"Where are all my stuffed animals?" Christina's dashboard was covered with Beanie Babies. "Wait! This isn't my car!" We jumped out and noticed that her Accord was about four spaces away. Just as we got into her car, the owner of the other Accord came out and drove away. She never knew that we had been in there.

And you never know who's been in your car while you're shopping.

|