In my April magazine column, I talked about the bad luck my Volkswagen Jetta was experiencing. I’ve owned the car less than four years, and I’ve already had to have the rear bumper repaired three times after being rear-ended.
So reader Suzanne O’Brien has an even better story about her neighbors’ car: Would you believe that each year they owned the vehicle, on exactly the same date each year, something bad happened to the car. Here’s the story, in Suzanne’s own words:
“Good afternoon, Rick:
“I love the Advocate and always read your column. On the car, I had to tell you my story, actually, a friends’ story. Vickie and Roger Sterling once had a BMW which was, to this day, Vickie’s favorite car. She loved everything the car had to offer from gas mileage to fit and finish. But every year they owned the vehicle, something would happen that would put the car into the collision repair center. Each time, they were in the vehicle driving someplace where either the car was left parked and got hit or they were rear ended, etc. And each year they had it repaired and thought nothing of it until their State Farm agent called them to ask if they were aware that the date of each incident was the same, always a body shop call on the same day, each year, every year. The Sterlings had not noticed that and so, once they got their vehicle repaired, they planned to take precautions the following year. Flash forward to the new year and that particular date rolled around, and the Sterlings wanted to go out for dinner.
“While Vickie wanted to drive her favorite car, they decided, silly as it sounded, to leave their Beamer parked safely in the garage. Off they went to dinner. Having had a nice evening out, upon returning home, imagine the shock and awe as they pulled into the driveway and saw that their garage had caved in, on top of the BMW.
“The car was sold after that.”
