On Monday Gerry parked his car on the driveway in front of our house (instead of back behind the house by the garage where we usually park…) The next morning he discovered that some annoying vandals had opened the passenger door, riffled through our glove compartment and took the plastic booklet/pouch with the car handbook, etc. There was a lot of this going on last Spring – kids stealing booklets of various cars, and to be honest we didn’t really think twice about it.

Today he was driving to Newark and had just crossed the city line out of South Orange when he was pulled over by a police officer for speeding. He admits he was speeding (going 43 in a 35 MPH zone, which switched to a 25 MPH zone at the city line) The officer asked for his insurance card and that’s when he realized that he didn’t have it.

He explained the situation to the officer, but she wasn’t buying it. He called me at home (literally 6 blocks away) and I rushed over with our policy – proving that we have insurance on both of our cars. The officer wouldn’t even look at the policy. Gerry called Amica and the officer wouldn’t talk to the agent. She kept saying, “Things are tough all over, I need to see your insurance card…” I rushed home, called the insurance agency and had them FAX a copy of the card to us. Rushed back and they were just loading Gerry’s car on the truck. She looked at the fax and said, scornfully, ‘It’s a FAX!” Duh.

So we spent 5 hours driving back and forth between downtown Newark to get a release, then back to the precinct because she hadn’t turned in the paperwork yet (the officers made it clear that they were letting us have a copy of the paperwork as a COURTESY) then back to downtown to get the release AGAIN. Then out to some horrible place where the turnpike meets the Soprano’s secret burial yard where the car was towed. Of course, they lost the car. Then they found the car and lost the keys.

Did I mention as the guy was driving off with our car he ran a red light?