Well today most of my work was in a town about 5 or 6 miles away. Between where I live and where I was working is a truck stop cafe. Today I decided to stop in there on the way home for a bite to eat as I didn't fancy cooking this evening. It's the time of day when the artics start rolling in to park up for the evening so I parked my van well out of the way on the far edge of the car park. Anyway, I ate a leisurely meal, had a read and shared some banter with the truckers. It's a nice atmosphere in there and the food is very good for a truck stop.
So I walked out of the door and, across the car park, I saw my van on the back of a recovery truck that was about to pull away at any moment. Naturally, my leisurely pace quickened.
The driver just told me that someone had phoned them earlier to collect it. I told him that it had only been parked there half an hour or so and he didn't seem to believe me. I asked nicely at first but when that looked like it wasn't working I told him that I wanted my asterisking van back. He then jumped in the cab. I thought he was going to drive off so went to jump in after him. It turned out that he only jumped in to retrieve his paperwork. Upon inspecting it I received profuse apologies. Afterwards I thought "I wonder if he was nicking it" so I phoned the recovery firm to check that it was a legit pick-up. It was - though he was meant to pick up a Vivaro (mine's a Trafic) and it was the only van in the car park.
I'm left wondering how things might have turned out if I had been in the cafe two minutes longer. I would have been phoning the police to report a stolen van.
I made it clear that I wasn't complaining about the driver - it's the sort of gaffe that anyone could make I suppose. However, I did want to make sure that it was all legit.
I'm laughing but my humour would have been sorely tested if the van had gone.
