Mixed Up With the Gypsies

In all my 36 years, I've never experienced a birthday quite like today. But before I can tell you about that, you need to know the back story. None of what you are about to read is made up or embellished. It's all the truth, crazy as it might sound.

Last Spring Brian put his BMW on Craigslist after he bought his truck. After several people looked but didn't end up buying, he was getting really anxious to sell it. A young guy came by to look at it. He didn't have the cash, but sat down with Brian to work out a down payment and payment plan. Brian wrote up a contract and went over everything with him.

After the down payment, he came up with all these stories about why he couldn't pay. Someone in his family was always sick or dying. He left town for a month to stay with some of his wife's family in Dallas. All the stories were very convincing. But finally enough was enough, and Brian told him he was going to have to repossess the car. Soon after that conversation, we couldn't get in touch with them at all. They moved and didn't tell us where they were and also changed their cell numbers. Finally he called Brian to set up a meeting, but gave Brian a fake address of their new place.

Last week we found out that their former land lord lives around the corner from us. Brian walked over there tonight but she wouldn't talk to him. So he went to the house where the guy used to live to see if he left a forwarding address. The new tenants said no, but they called the land lord and explained the situation. She gladly gave the forwarding address of the guy's uncle since they owe her over $10,000 in rent.

So what do we do before my birthday dinner? Drive by the uncle's house to see if our BMW is parked outside! It wasn't. So after dinner we did a second drive by. This time a guy was standing out in the street talking to someone. Brian decided to ask if he knew the people that lived in the house. It turned out to be his house and he was ticked because people were always coming by looking for cars and rent money. He finally told us he knew the guy, who happened to be a gypsy, and described our BMW without us saying a word about it. This guy and the guy he was talking to were gypsies also. He told us he'd tell us where it was for $100! We didn't have any cash, but he went ahead and told us where the apartments were where we'd find it parked. He didn't believe us when we said we'd bring him the cash if we found the car.

We found the apartment complex, said a prayer that God would protect us and help us find the car, then drove around and around and around looking for the car. There were parking spaces and garages (all of which were closed). On the last row, there was one opened garage, with Brian's BMW parked inside! We were freaking out big time, and Brian started fumbling around for the key. He jumped out and I took over the truck. He went in the garage, backed it out, and we drove off without any confrontation. We went straight home and he cleaned out the garage and parked it in there! We decided to go back to the apartment and get the unit number so we could tell the land lord where she could find them. Then we took $100 to give the gypsy that helped us.

Brian called the police to let them know what happened. He had gone and told them about it a few weeks ago, but they couldn't do anything since it was a civil matter. They told him he should have called them before he took the car, but next time he would know. NEXT TIME??? He let them know there would be no next time! Lesson learned. But boy did it make for an exciting birthday! I married a guy that knows how to show a girl a good time. "Hey baby, wanna grab some dinner then go repo a car?"

As I look back at this story (I always proofread before I hit "publish") one sentence really sticks out. Never in a million years would I have predicted that on my 36th birthday I'd be writing, "Then we took $100 to give the gypsy that helped us."

This was all 3 hours ago and Brian's heart is still racing!