Cal called me on his way home from work last night. As we were catching up on what we had both been doing these past few days, he happened to mention that he couldn't find his car this morning before he left for work. He said that Jayce had driven it last and parked it near a laundromat, but he just couldn't seem to locate it. Tonight as he neared the spot that the CR-V last showed its marked location on Apple maps, he realized that it wasn't going to be easy to find.
Cal and Jayce spent the next three hours looking all through Wrigleyville for the shared vehicle. Jayce confirmed that it wasn't where he last parked it and agreed with Cal that it was at the marked Apple location either. They called their friends to see if any of them borrowed it, but no one had been driven it as they took public transportation on all of their adventures this weekend. They next called the 888 number for impounded vehicles in the city of Chicago, but it did not register Cal's car on their list. Thus, Cal went to bed Monday night concerned that his car had been stolen. He had heard Uncle Phil's stolen vehicle story many times over the past few years and was positive that he was following in his footsteps.
While Cal and Jayce were looking in the neighborhood last night, I tried helping by doing some research online. I kept coming up with the same information that Cal and Jayce did. Cal's license plate was not on the registry of vehicles that had been impounded. I started again early this morning on my quest to find the car once more. Something in me kept saying that it wasn't stolen, it was just misplaced. I first started looking to see if there was a Honda version of On Star on his car that we could use to try and locate it. Unfortunately, the CR-V was too old for Honda Link, so I decided to do more research on the Chicago government transportation website instead. Finally, after an hour of weeding through a ton of information I found the link to a list of cars that had been "relocated" in the city of Chicago. Three pages of relocated cars led me to the license plate that I had been searching for since last night. It gave the address that Jayce had last parked it and the one where it was relocated. I texted Cal immediately and said that I may have found it and would keep him informed.
The next step took some time on the phone as we had to verify with 3-1-1 that it was actually Cal's car and that the address listed was where it was parked. After erroneously calling South Bend's 3-1-1, I figured out that I would have to use a different number since I was outside of the Chicago city limits. I spent a half hour on the phone and couldn't reach anyone. I gave the number to Cal as I had to leave for Meg's doctor's appointment, but he couldn't get through either and had a busy day of work ahead of him. Thankfully, Doug had some time this afternoon to call, put the phone on speaker and wait for someone to answer. The person on the other line assured him that the vehicle would be at the address that was listed on the website. It had been moved to allow for either street cleaning or construction on Saturday morning. Doug was skeptical that it would really be there and Cal was worried that he would never find it. Finally, after a long day at work and an after hours Plante Moran event, Cal sent me a picture just before midnight our time. The CR-V wasn't exactly where the address said, but it was close enough that he could locate it. Even better there was no ticket on it or impounding fee. What a relief!
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