The return of the Honda!

For those of you who were trying to make sense of my last post, that is a scene from the classic motion picture, "Lassie Come-Home"  I posted that picture because, much like that courageous collie that climbs mountains, forges streams and dodges rush-hour traffic to make it back to his family, my car has come home!

I had assumed that by now, my car had been chopped up into little auto parts and sold piecemeal.   I was making plans to buy my next car (I had heard that Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was on the market) when I received a call from the LA Sheriffs:   My car had been recovered!  I was told I could go pick it up at a towing yard in Walnut.  On the way there, I prepared myself for what it might look like, asking myself the questions:   Is it stripped completely?   Was it involved in an accident?   Was it used in the commission of a bank robbery?   Can I get fries with that?   (sorry, it was lunchtime and I was hungry)   I eventually got to the towing yard, paid the fees, and walked into the yard to see my car, parked in the far corner of the lot.

We stopped, I looked...

This would be a good time to describe how my first stolen car looked once it was found.   My first car, a 1986 Honda Civic, was stolen in 1997 and stripped for parts.   Once the thieves removed everything of value from the car, they set the car on fire.   Here are a few pictures of that car in the impound lot:

So, understand why my hopes where not too high.  Eleven days is more than enough time to strip a car.   However, amazingly - my car got off relatively unscathed!  The thieves stole the car stereo, the battery, a tank of gas and a few CD's (they took the Disney CD's but left the Best of Mel Blanc behind), then left the car on a residential street.   They rummaged through the glove compartments, but never bothered to open the trunk, where a few things of actual value  would have been found.  There are a few things not working right (the horn and the gear shift) but the car runs as it did before.  These items are currently being repaired by my insurance company, and soon things will return to normal.

Oh, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang sold.    I didn't win the auction; my $12 bid being a little too low.   Well, you can't win them all.