True Story

A Nefarious Scheme to Retrieve My Laptop Almost Got Us Arrested

My options were limited which led me to think out of the box

When I could not find my laptop after returning from a 3-day trip, panic set in knowing it could cost me my job should it be lost.

A luxury rental car

After a trip out of state with my friend Bob to attend his nephew’s christening, we arrived back home Sunday night earlier than expected. We decided to drop the luxury rental car we used for the trip back to the dealership rather than wait until morning.

The lot was closed for the night, so we proceeded to transfer our belongings to his car. Then as previously instructed, if we were to arrive during off-hours, drop the keys through the key slot in the glass door at the front of the building.

Bob drove me back to my house, helped unload my luggage, and then headed home tired after the long trip.

As I was unpacking, I realized my laptop was nowhere to be found. Trying not to panic, I waited awhile before calling Bob, sure he must have accidentally taken it back with him.

“No,” he said, surprised, “you had it last. I just brought my suitcases inside, and it’s not here.”

Rolling over the day’s events in my mind, I remembered putting it on top of the pile of suitcases that Bob was loading into the trunk of the rental car while we were still at the hotel.

When I reminded him of its last whereabouts, he couldn’t be sure if he had packed it or not. He did recall taking note of nothing being left on the ground after packing the car.

It has to be somewhere

The only possible location of my laptop had to be the rental car, and returning to the dealership was our only option for recovering it. As he lived closer than I did, he agreed to meet me there.

I had taken the laptop home with me for the 3-day weekend hoping to catch up on some work-related business, knowing it had to be returned Monday morning.

We each tried calling the manager with no response. Continuing to call and leave messages, we were optimistic that by the time one of us arrived at the lot, someone would be on site to allow us entry into the rental car.

No one was there. We continued our efforts to reach someone for another half hour.

How is it that they have no emergency phone number? What if we had an accident that needed his assistance?

The keys were there, on the floor inside the glass door, exactly where we dropped them off less than two hours ago, but they were out of our grasp.

After waiting a little longer, with me panicking knowing if I didn’t have my laptop to plug into my docking station on Monday, I would probably be fired.

If my laptop was in the trunk only a few feet away, I would need a plan to retrieve it, even if it meant sleeping in my car all night until the manager arrived in the morning.

I told Bob what I was thinking, which he thought ridiculous, suggesting we drive back in the morning. To me, that defeated the purpose of dropping the car off earlier that evening. There would be no sleep for me that night until I knew where my laptop ended up.

Then something occurred to me, and I asked Bob, “Doesn’t the contract on the car run out tomorrow sometime?”

“Yes, around 11:00 a.m. Why?”

“Because,” I replied, “we put the keys in the slot too early. Had we held onto them, we would be able to open the trunk. All we need to do is get the keys back as they should have been in our possession until tomorrow, anyway.”

He blurted, “How do you expect to do that? The doors are locked. You can’t break in!”

“What if I could get the keys out without disturbing anything? How could that be illegal if your contract is still valid?” I responded.

The wheels were turning — I had a plan.

“What could we use that would be long enough to stick through the mail slot, which also had a hook on it?” I thought out loud.

There was nothing off the top of my head, but maybe there was an object in one of our cars that could work — a coat hanger, maybe. With that, I opened the trunk of my car looking for something, anything, and asked him to do the same.

“I think you’re out of your mind, there’s no way to get those keys back. Even if we could, then what?”

“Then we open the trunk, find my computer if it’s in there, lock up the rental car, drop the keys back into the slot, and go home. Easy!”

An unwilling cohort

Reluctantly, he agreed and searched his car, but came up short. But, as luck would have it, I found two bungee cords with hooks on both ends in my trunk. It figures — I always have a bunch of seemingly useless junk in my car.

If I could hook them together, they would be long enough to go through the slot, enabling me to reach the keys. All I would have to do is hook the key ring, then pull it up through the slot.

I hooked the bungees together and proceeded to poke them through the key drop. The building wasn’t well-lit making it difficult to see the ring of keys.

After several attempts, I successfully hooked the keys onto the end of the bungee cord and then carefully pulled them through the slot.

It was a tricky maneuver, but it worked. I retrieved the keys — now if I could just retrieve my laptop, we could call it a night.

Bob was nervous and kept looking toward the road to see if the police or the manager were coming. No one ever showed up or called us back.

With keys in hand, I walked over to the rental car in the hopes of a quick recovery and then an immediate exit.

Upon first opening the trunk, we saw nothing but the black lining. My laptop was also black so I started groping around with my right hand, then reached in as far as I could, and voila, there it was.

Bob remembered when he packed the car, he took the computer off the pile of suitcases where I had left it, then it must have gotten pushed to the far corner of the trunk.

When he unloaded our belongings, he never checked for it, and neither did I. It was such a relief to know it hadn’t been left in another state three hours away.

We locked the rental car again and then dropped the keys off before heading home. I had a good night’s sleep, and the ordeal was forgotten — for now.

Caught in the act

The next day, the police showed up at my friend’s job because the contract was in his name. They not-so-discreetly took him into an empty room and allowed him to tell his side of the story.

Who knew our little shenanigan was being filmed by security cameras?! They reprimanded him and let him know that we had trespassed and could have been fined or worse.

I have to admit, Bob never threw me under the bus and took full blame. Later, I received an earful when he relayed how embarrassed he was and that he’d never go along with my hair-brained schemes again.

We were lucky the dealer didn’t press charges. Unbeknownst to us, once the keys were turned back over to the agency, prematurely or not, the contract ended, and we were breaking the law by trying to fetch them. Lesson learned!

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