This Man Forgot Where He Parked His Car And Found It 20 Years Later Exactly Where He Left It

Consider your eyebrow raised.

Elana

• Published in Funny
• December 6, 2017

I am quite certain that virtually everyone who has ever driven and parked a car before has at least once forgotten at least momentarily where they parked it. For most of us, however, the moment is fleeting and we find out vehicle. 

Sometimes we may spend a solid ten to fifteen minutes wandering around the parking lot at the grocery store or if you're really unlucky you might spend a good hour wandering around the mall parking lot but beyond that most of us are keen to find our vehicle and move on with our day, no matter how frustrated the hide and seek endeavor may have been.

Ultimately, we have a vague idea where we parked our vehicle and it's only been there a short while.

Reflecting then on the times you've wandered aimlessly and frustrated through a parking lot looking for your dumb vehicle consider the man who lost his vehicle for a whopping twenty years.

I know, it kind of sounds like the plot to a corny movie but it's not. It is reality. Or at least it was reality for one man in Frankfurt.

Way back in 1997 (some of you may not have even been born yet) the world was a vastly different place. Bill Clinton was the President of the United States instead of a late night comedy joke and Donald Trump was a wealthy business man, also instead of a late night comedy joke. Sorry, he's also now the President of the United States. That's how long ago this was, folks! Cassette tapes still existed, MTV played music videos, and the Internet was a fraction as common as it was today. Also, teenagers did not have their own cell phones.

All of that aside, an every day man in Frankfurt forgot where he parked his vehicle and after searching frantically for it everywhere he could think he came to the conclusion that surely it had been stolen. Naturally, he reported the vehicle stolen to the local authorities. However, it was never recovered so the man just... moved on with his life. One can only mourn the loss of a car for so long, right?

I suppose today we could not even conceive losing our vehicle for 20 years. Technology is practically the thing of science fiction compared to the 90's and the average individual can track their vehicle's location with their phone! Everything is computerized these days and privacy is essentially nonexistent.

So after 20 years passed you can probably imagine the stunning twist of fate it was when the man was quite literally reunited with his long, lost vehicle!

As reported in the German newspaper Augsberger Allgemein, the most stunning factor of the entire tale is that the vehicle had not moved so much as an inch from where the man left it way back in 1997.

The car, missing for 20 years, had been found sitting in a building that was set to be demolished.

The man went on to explain that his long-lost car was discovered because the demolish crew contacted the local authorities to explain that they could not demolish the building until the vehicle was removed. The crew had zero clue that the vehicle's owner had long-since assumed it was stolen and permanently gone!

The Augsberger Allgemein went on to report that the man, now aged to 76 years old, was physically reunited with his missing vehicle thanks to a police escort. The local police drove the man and his daughter to the building where the car had been sitting unused and unloved for 20 long years.

Sadly, after 20 years neglected and unused as well as literally unmoved, the vehicle no longer worked so it ended up being scrapped.

But don't you shed a single tear, Frankfurt authorities revealed:

The car can no longer be driven and will be sent to the scrap heap.

But even with all of that, the best and craziest part of the story? The man was issued a $6,000 parking ticket.

Naturally, people were astounded by the ticket but authorities explained:

Officers have found a car in a multi-story [car park] lost since June, driver visiting city parked it but couldn’t remember where, [The] driver apparently spent five days searching parking lots in the city before reporting as lost/stolen.

Okay, that doesn't really make it sound any less heartless I guess, but hey, I'm sure he learned a valuable lesson about not forgetting his parking spot for 20 years, right?

But hey, he is not the only one! About a year ago near the end of 2016 a man was reunited with his car after he lost it, forgetting where he had parked six months prior at a Stone Ross concert in Manchester, England. 

And check out this video of someone who lost their vehicle when it fell straight into the sea off the coast of Australia!

Lesson learned? Uh, have a good memory and don't put your car on a boat.

Elana