I saw this on Reddit and had to share it. We all have a tough time finding our cars in parking lots, but this guy has a bit better of an excuse.
Note the license plate and contemplate the odds of the same make and sequence. My first thought was that a couple brought two cars of the same make and went to the DMV at the same time. However, he insists that this is the car of a perfect stranger.
My first thought was a rental company, not a personal buyer of two cars. Who would buy one Hyundai, let alone two?
Hopefully they are not parked at a bar….. Officer I can’t find my kar….
One night when working patrol I found a pick-up truck parked in a Handicapped zone without decals. The truck had a Montana plate and I called it into dispatch. Half way though writing out the ticket dispatch gave me the make and model registered to the plate and it came back to a passenger car. I confirmed the plate I gave her was the one she received. So thinking this was a switched plate I ran the VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) which came back to the year, make and model for this pickup AND that VIN was registered to the same plate as the one I just ran.
Turned out the dispatcher did not hear me when I said “Registration on Montana PICKUP”, (not hearing pickup) and ran it through NLETS as a car and the other matching plate returned as a car. But when the VIN query was ran it went directly for my vehicle.
She later called me on the phone and said that she found out what happened in the above paragraph and discovered that Montana is one of the last states in the land where two different vehicles can have the same license plate number. So ABC123 can be unique among cars by there can also exist ABC123 on a truck.
Crazy. But not as bad as a couple years later when a dispatcher didn’t listen to when I told her it was an out-of-state motorcycle that I was contacting and she belted out that that it was stolen. But in talking to the guy when the stolen info came out the guy’s demeanor was like zero percent likely he was a car thief. Thinking about the Montana incident I asked the dispatcher to confirm make and model of the motorcycle. Rather embarassingly she said the stolen was on a Car with the same plate and the motorcycle was clear.
The motorcyclist asked what was going on and I said We’ll my dispatcher was saying your bike was stolen.” He replied rather laughingly “Your dispatcher is full of sh1t.” “Yep. she is” I concurred.
Somebody told me that Cessna only had six different keys for their airplanes. I believe it. Half my filing cabinet keys fit almost any Cessna parked on the ramp. Locking yourself out of your Cessna airplane is never a problem.
back in the 80’s ford only used 20 different keys. with the taurus you had to make sure the numbers matched your w/o or you might work on the wrong car.
They’re not really the same sequence. 6W and 6Y. Close, but no cigar.
I wouldn’t be so sure someone else’s remote won’t work. Several years ago I had a friend whose elderly Mom went out to the grocery parking lot to wait for her husband. A complete stranger started tapping on the window. The doors were already locked. She stared straight ahead refusing to acknowledge his he was there. Eventually her husband showed up, got her attention, and pointed to their care a couple of spaces over. Same color, same model, same key.
People laugh when they see my car. I think every small gray car is mine so I have a big orange stuffed frog sitting atop the passenger seat. I see orange, I know that’s the right car
Those Hyundai are also approaching the Camry and Accord in being ubiquitous. The worst, in my area, are red minivans. They’re everywhere!! However, autos are regional. You go to west Texas and it’s white Ford pickups.
I have 2 ubiquitous autos. They are leftovers from when I was working full time on surveillance. I call the drab colored cars Soviet Unionesque. The Camry and Accord are 2 of the most common vehicle on the road. Add a drab gray color and they’re great for surveillance. I worked a case on Tuesday and it was very helpful. However, w/ my advancing years I have, on several occasions, stood in front of a very similar vehicle, hitting my remote like Chance The Gardener, trying to change the channel on an unpleasant street confrontation. It doesn’t work if it’s not your car.
Car dealership.
Wonder where X and Z are? Even more puzzling, do their keyless remotes work on either others car?