Here is the story.
A client comes in on Sunday, to a guide service for the Yakima River (not sure absolutely which one …. so I
won’t use names), and pays for a shuttle. He has a red Ford Truck, and
wants it taken from Umtanum to Rosa. He
gives them a spare key and drives down and launches at Umtanum and starts his drift
down to Rosa. A kid who does the shuttle
for the guide service, goes down to Umtanum, sees a red Ford truck, puts the
key in the lock, unlocks the door, jumps in and turns on the ignition, starts
the truck up and drives the truck and trailer down to Rosa. He locks the
key in the truck as instructed and his job is done. Later the client who
paid for the shuttle gets off the water quite late at Rosa.
He is unable to find his truck in the parking lot anywhere. He makes his
way back to Umptanum (I believe he walked), and finds his truck right where he
left it. He uses his other key and takes his truck backed down to Rosa, loads up his gear and goes home. Today he
calls the guide service and is furious with them, complaining that his truck
was never shuttled. They insist they did shuttle a red Ford Truck to Rosa. I’m not sure how they put it together,
maybe they went to Rosa and saw the truck
still there. They called the Sheriff and told them what happened, the
sheriff informed them the truck was reported stolen. The Sheriff then called
my friend who reported the truck stolen and right now is on his way to Rosa to get his truck and bring it home. A
great ending to the saga – in that he gets his truck and trailer back …
intact – no damage done and nothing taken out of the truck, trailer still
there and all. (Assuming it hasn’t been tampered with during its
stay in the Rosa Lot). The sheriff did by a couple of times to check on
it today after the discovery of what happened to check on the truck and said it
looked in good shape. Nice of him to keep an eye on it.
What are the odds that someone else’s red ford truck
key would fit the only other red ford truck in the parking lot? Obviously
license plates were not checked and procedures were a little loose. I’m
sure my friend will have a few words with the shuttle service. He lost at
least a night’s sleep, a day on the phone with the insurance company and
all that is involved in that, and had a few notches on his blood pressure
jacked up, not to mention the inconvenience to quite a few people. Some
day it will make a good story. Right now there is a lot of relief and a
few upset nerves endings. Perhaps little bit of faith in mankind (and his
ability to make mistakes) has been restored. I’m feeling fortunate
to get my stuff that was in his truck back, and more fortunate in that a mutual
friend is performing half of the shuttle service tonight, I’m hitting the
sheets early, as I didn’t sleep at all well last night.
Steve Egge
