Monday 12th August 2024
It's been a while, life's been a bit busy, away at weekends, back Mondays playing catch up with everything and the blogs been ignored! Today's events though, need recording, it was quite the day.
I left Wales at 4.30 because he went to work at that time and I'd got a dentist appointment at 9.50am so I thought if I leave early, I'll be back before the morning rush and I can have a shower and be there in time.
Well that didn't happen....
An hour later, just before leaving M50 to join the M5, I got pulled over by the police, it was weird because I'd seen a white car parked at the side and thought to myself 'I wonder if that's the police', turns out it was.
So I heard the wur wurs and saw the lights flashing and at first I thought is he just going round me but he didn't so I pulled in. Now I'm thinking 'WHY?', as he came up to the car, I said, 'what did I do?' and he replied, 'can you take your keys out of the ignition, if you come and sit in the back of my car, I'll explain'. Now I'm a bit worried because I wasn't speeding, I was doing 60 in a 70 because it was dark and I'm not a fan of night driving. I got in his car and he asked me who's car it was, I said mine, he asked how long I'd had it, I said a couple of years, then he told me it was a stolen car! I'm like nah, it's my car, I've not reported it stolen. He tells me it was reported stolen 3 years ago! I asked him if he was the white car in the layby - he said yes, I was impressed and asked how did you run all these checks in a minute, he told me they'd clocked me a long time ago and were putting things in place to stop me!
DEEP SIGH.
He asked who I'd bought it from, I said a garage and he asked if I knew who, yeah not only did I know but I had their keyring on my keys with their name and phone number. Now another car pulls up and two policemen get out ask if he's okay (cos I look dangerous - not), he said yeah and they started to check my car over, check vin numbers etc. We chat, they were all very nice and treated me with respect, he said it sounded like I was innocent in this but he needed to check a few things. Ultimately it ended with him telling me they were taking my car from me, I'm like what happens to it, he explained it would go back down to Thames Valley where the stolen report was made and then returned to the insurance company who would probably auction it off. I'm like what about me, he said he would ask the tow truck to drop me at the services! Seriously what is going on.
He let me call himself to tell him what was going on, I told him I'd got 3 police men with me, the one that had stopped me smiled and said there was a lot more than that, if you hadn't stopped, there were 3 cars at the roundabout with stingers to cover all directions - EEK! I then called my brother to get him to pick me up, he'd be an hour.
So 10 minutes later I'm dropped at Strensham services on the M5 Northbound, allowed to remove all my worldly goods to a bench to wait. I mean look at this lot! I couldn't go to the loo as it was all there, I couldn't get a drink, no one would make eye contact with me as I looked like a vagrant, it was not a pleasant hour.
Whilst I'm sorting getting home, himself was trying to get to the bottom of the situation, thankfully he's done a lot of business with the garage and he went in early to find the paperwork to trace it back and see what had happened. When the seller was called, he told him that he had reported it stolen before realising it hadn't been, it had been towed by the council for not having any tax, he would all the police and have the marker removed immediately and in fairness he did call them. This meant I could then start calling round to try and make sure the car wasn't taken from Gloucester police and returned to Thames Valley. You have to pay to get a car out of a pound, plus the tow fee!
I'd been paying attention in the car and I knew the car was reported stolen in August 2021, however the garage had bought the car in July 2021 so the seller reported it after selling it! The plot thickens.
I finally got the okay to collect my car, the police said they would cover all the costs as it wasn't my fault and I'd had quite the day already. Took almost 3 hours do do that journey because of the traffic but at least I have my car back. As the car was empty for a change, I treated it to a valet and me and Aryn to an Indian, I wasn't cooking after that day.
I've emailed the information I have to the policeman who stopped me, so let's see if they follow it up.
On a positive - I made that dentist appointment though!
They were really lovely with me in a horrible situation, they were just doing their job, but they did it in a respectful way. I'm not gonna pretend it was a pleasant experience, I got a little teary as they put my car on the tow truck and I got in the back thinking, I'm not getting that car back. Unloading my car at the services whilst the towman waited, then sitting there for an hour feeling like people were staring but not making eye contact, it was horrible.
But it's done and I have my car, it's all clean and smells nice too, I'm gonna enjoy a glass of wine and have an early night - I'm shattered!
Tomorrow's another day, let's hope it less hectic and traumatic!
Mwah, luv ya,
Love me xx
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