Vice Versa

I'm of two minds about this, but at least they're both mine.  And since all men of whatever age are still sort of 19 deep inside, I know what I would have done, were I in Gavin Strickland's Birkenstocks.

Gavin is 19 for the first time, and he's from New York, and he took a notion to drive his car to Canada to see a Metallica concert, instead of waiting for them to come to his town.

So he goes and parks his Nissan Versa in some garage in Toronto and he enjoys the show and he comes out and he can't remember 
where in hell  Toronto he parked the machine.

I understand the young man's problem. There he was, car key in hand, and no car in which to insert it. 

(Text me for the complete police station joke if you haven't heard it.)

No way I would ever have done this, but after he roamed the bleak streets of Toronto (Blue Jay Way? 12-Man Football Highway?) looking in vain, he slept on a park bench and resumed his search in the morning, even riding around in a police car for three hours looking in garages, with no luck.

How many parking garages ARE there in Toronto, anyway?

After giving his own wits and the Toronto PD their fair chances, he told his parents what was going on, and they went to Craigslist to enlist help (and give Gavin a little headslap at the same time):

"Our doofy son parked the car in an indoor parking garage, in the first floor (slightly lower/basement level) but that garage cannot now be located," the parents wrote. "Please respond with photos of the car and specific location instructions to claim the reward."

And then his parents brought him home via Greyhound bus.

Meanwhile, back in the land of veal sandwiches and poutine, Madison Riddolls and her boyfriend piled into the bf's car to look for the missing Versa.  And in a trice, they found it in the garage at the TD Bank Tower.

Lost and found

"I love puzzles, I love challenges and escape rooms, all that. I read a few clues about where it could be and it honestly excited me," Madison told CTV News. "Wednesday night, my boyfriend and I took his car out and we went for a drive. We started with every Starbucks with a construction zone and a bank nearby."

Strickland père has sent Ms Riddolls $100 (that's about 125 Canadian Dollars) and plans to donate to a charity in her name.


And he gave Junior one more knock on the way out the door...

"He's a good kid, he just really kind of screwed up going into a big city not knowing what to do," he said.

It must have been a really great concert.  And I sure hope the Toronto PD offers Ms Riddolls a job as a detective, since she found what they could not.