Monday, April 27, 2015

Sunday Shenanigans

Sunday was supposed to go like this: Matt would get up early and go to his SUP race, and I'd sleep in and go watch once the race was underway.

What actually happened was that Matt backed his car out of the garage and came back inside to wake me up. "There's a strange car in our driveway." A completely trashed strange car, it turned out, with garbage all over the inside, an industrial sized bottle of Grey Goose in the front seat, a high school senior tag on the windshield, and no driver in sight.

Boggled, I told Matt to call a towing company and go to his race.
I really enjoyed live-updating everyone on this debacle!
About half an hour later, the towing guy showed up. I explained that the car wasn't ours, we had no clue whose it was, and we wanted it towed. The guy was like, "This is a first for me." I asked him for a card to leave for the owner if they returned for the car, but in my mind all I could imagine was a hungover high-schooler checking random driveways like in Dude, Where's My Car, because how likely would it be that they'd remember where they parked it?
Who knew this movie was so close to real life?
About forty minutes after that, I was ready to go to the SUP race. I just had to tape the business card to our door...and then I heard it. Voices. A very distraught, shrill girl, and a completely confused and panicked boy.

I listened out of sight for a minute, trying to overhear them and figure out if they were safe to approach. I gathered that he had told her to park the car in our driveway because our house has a security system and a big hedge that blocks the driveway from the street, so it was safe. (Maybe they were at a party and didn't want to park in the street? I don't even know.)

I glanced out. He was shoeless and his mannerisms reminded me of Phoebe Buffay's brother Frank on FRIENDS. She was bleached-blonde, extensioned, over-tanned, tattooed, and generally pitiable. 
I went out. The boy asked me, completely guileless, "We parked our car here last night. Have you seen it?" As if this were the most natural thing in the world!

I told him my husband had had it towed and gave him the business card. I finished getting ready for the race while they stayed in the driveway trying to figure out what to do. I overheard the girl saying, "You're paying the fee! You're the one who told me to park here!" Good for you, girl.

I went out once more to give them bottles of water and to kind of check them out and see if they were safe to leave while I went to the race. They actually asked me for a ride to the tow yard! Of course, I declined. When I left the house, they were still in my driveway.

As for the SUP race, I got there after the start but with plenty of time to see Matt finish. We had lunch out afterward and by the time I got home, the hungover teens had gone.
I felt kind of bad about it, but really, we could've called the cops on them and made things much worse; had they left a note, we wouldn't have had the car towed at all. But hopefully this teaches them a valuable lesson and, in ten years or so, they'll look back on it and laugh.

And I just keep thinking, oh man, I'm old.

Did you get up to any shenanigans when you were in high school?
Do you ever have to deal with wayward teens?

ABK

31 comments:

  1. Okay...that is a funny story....and you're right....some day those teens will laugh about it. Sorry you didn't get to sleep in!!

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    1. I guess the adventure was worth losing some sleep lol!

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  2. That is an absolutely hilarious story!!

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    1. It definitely cracked me up! I was literally laughing as I drove to the race.

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  3. Haha! Wow! That would be an interesting start to a day for sure! They will have to laugh about this later, I mean how could they not!
    My friends and I were always having fun when we were young but nothing like that! I guess we were "lame"!
    :)

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    1. Same...I had my share of fun, but I never ended up getting my car towed from a stranger's driveway!

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  4. That is hilarious! Although it is a little sad to stay that "Dude Where's My Car" really is NOT too stupid to be true...:-/

    I would have done the same thing, and you're right, they will laugh about it one day if they aren't already! I know we all do moronic things at that age but that is pretty bone headed. Even high schoolers know better than that! Now get off my lawn.

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    1. Say = stay. Of course I made a typo in a sentence about a movie being too stupid to be true. I'm done now. LOL.

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    2. HAHA! Yes, this is literally a "get off my lawn!" moment!! The strange thing (maybe because I work with teens?) is that part of me thought this was kind of a normal occurrence and I just had this totally uncool old person response! But maybe the kids really were way outta line!

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  5. Oh my goodness! Wow, what a bizarre start to your Sunday and overall just a really strange occurrence. Teens these days...

    I'm just glad to hear that no one was dangerous or that there weren't any other issues!

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    1. Yeah, I'm really glad they weren't dangerous. I was out of my comfort zone as it was!

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  6. I thought you were going to find a drunk homeless guy asleep in your spare bedroom or something! WHEW! Also, had to stifle my laughter when you told the teens your husband had had their car towed (um, after you gave him the idea LOL).

    I remember as a teen going to a concert at the Forum (U2 BTW) and we had no idea where we'd left our car. We were wandering a vast parking lot pressing the key fob into the air, trying to listen for the horn! We weren't drinking at all...maybe had a contact high, who knows. Got home way past my curfew and in a whole bunch of trouble. Good times.

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    1. Yeah, I TOTALLY pinned it on Matt. Even though he wasn't home at the time, I wanted them to know there was a man of the house. Ugh, lame.

      I love U2! No shame!

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  7. I think you are exactly right- it was a valuable lesson for those kids (even though I'm sure they don't think so right now)!
    Glad they didn't drive it home the night before - sounds like that might have ended in disaster!!!

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    1. I just wonder why they didn't leave the car in the street! Maybe they were trying to protect the giant vodka bottle.

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  8. How bizarre! I got into more than my fair share of shenanigans in high school, but never pulled something like that. That is unbelievable! Honestly, it sounds like you were more than nice enough to them. I mean, I'm sure they were feeling pretty rough in the morning and this made a bad day worse, but you can't just park in a stranger's driveway!

    I once woke up in the middle of the night to a strange man trying to enter the back door of my house. I called the cops before investigating it myself because it was just me and my roommate at the time. It turns out it was just a very drunk and very lost college student and the cops were kinda rough with him, so I felt pretty bad. But he scared the CRAP out of us and how were we to know that he was harmless?

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    1. I kept feeling like maybe I was too harsh; I'm glad people seem to be agreeing that I did the right thing/was maybe TOO nice!

      OMG that would have freaked me out, too! I've never had that kind of experience where a stranger tried to get in because they were just wasted. Scary!

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  9. Omg I got into NOTHING like that when I was a teenager! For one thing, I didn't actually drink until I was 21. My parents were super strict and I wasn't allowed to ride around with anyone in cars like that. But year, stories like this make me feel really old! Remember when that high school boy was yelling at my when I ran by their bus stop and I had to go school them on manners? That's the last time I think I talked to high school kids. I used to choreograph my district's high school musicals and I got more and more annoyed with the hs kids. The thing is, they ACTED like the elem. kids I taught, but they had no excuse for it!

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    1. Aw, you were a good kid! I think because I work with teens, I had more pity for them than I otherwise would. It's definitely frustrating when they act way younger than they should; don't they know their brains are formed enough to start making better decisions than that?!

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  10. What in the world?! That is so crazy! I cannot imagine leaving my car in someone's driveway like that AND I really can't imagine asking the home owner where my car is... and I definitely can't imagine asking the home owner to drive me to the tow lot!!! Who are these people?! o_O

    You were really too kind to bring them bottles of water! You are a good person! I would have been like, "get off my lawn you damn kids!"

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    1. HAHA! Okay, rereading it in your words, I DO realize how insane it all sounds!! If I were them, I'd have run and hidden as soon as the front door opened!

      I felt bad shooing them off while they were stranded due to me, but why couldn't they walk back to where they'd come from?!

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  11. Oh my gosh! What a story...soooo Dude Where's My Car. I am surprised they didn't disturb you both the night before.

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    1. They must have parked reaaaaally quietly and walked back off to their party or something! So strange.

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  12. I've never clicked on a link so fast as when I read the beginning of this story today!! This is amazing!!! You are so kind to call a towing company and not the police. And the water!! Hahahaha!!
    This is fantastic!!

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    1. Ha, I'm glad I could give you a laugh!! I wonder how much of this story showed up in the link to get you to click so fast hehe!

      I mean, I HAD to give them water. I imagine they'd had nothing but vodka for about eight hours straight and it was already in the 80s!

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  13. My shenanigans were way less epic than that. We did things like dumb play pranks on people's parents and stuff. Haha. Looking back on it, it really wasn't all that nice.

    Once a drunk teenager crashed his car into my parent's mailbox. My mom and I ran outside to see what happened and he stumbled out of his car (like a moron), apologized and then asked me on a date. Needless to say, he got a rather firm decline. lol

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    1. OMG! I swear, drunk people are THE ballsiest morons in the world. I can't believe he asked you on a date!

      Our neighbors' mailbox gets pulverized all the time. They live at the corner of our street and people take the turn too fast daily and never stop to fix it!

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  14. I can't believe you gave them water! You are much too nice! Why didn't they just park it on the street somewhere? That is such a crazy story!

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    1. I felt so bad! They were clearly super hungover and it was already in the 80s. But yeah, I have NO idea why they didn't park on the street! I think their party destination wasn't right near us, either, so they drove to our street to drop their car. Weird.

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  15. That's a hilarious story. I wonder just how much trouble they were in once they finally got home...

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    1. I DO wonder that!! Did they pay the towing fee and not tell their parents, or did they have to 'fess up?!

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