Tuesday, December 4, 2018

Cletus and Zeke in East Carolina, continued

Bobbi and Kendra continued patrolling the sidewalk in front of Skrezya Autos after lunch.

The police showed up an hour later. Ralph had called them as showroom traffic dropped to zero and people started calling to cancel their service appointments. They specifically mentioned the two young ladies patrolling in front of the dealership.

Officer Paul Mellini strolled up to Bobbi and addressed her, "How ya doing this fine afternoon, miss Bobbi?"

"Not so good, Officer Paul. Skrezya stole my car." Bobbi said. Bobbi had run track with Officer Paul's younger sister.

"Ya, about that. Mr Skrezya says you are maligning his good name. Says you are slandering him and he called us up to have a talk with you." Officer Paul said.

"I have to advise you stop saying he stole your car." Officer Paul advised. "'Cause if somebody had stole your car you would have reported it to the police, right?"

Somehow that thought had never occurred to Bobbi. "Well, I guess you are right."

Then, "Can you take a report on a stolen car?" Bobbi asked.

"Now?" Paul asked.

"Yup." Bobbi said. Then she rattled off make, model and after pulling up her insurance policy on her smart phone, the VIN.

Officer Paul wrote down the information. Then he asked. "And where do you think this vehicle is?"

Bobbi pointed. It was next to the service garage.

Officer Paul hoisted himself off the bench he had been sitting on as Bobbi and Kendra had paraded back and forth in front of him. He sauntered on over to the vehicle Bobbi had pointed at and verified the VIN. Then he went to his cruiser and verified that it was registered in Bobbi's name. Then he went over to Skrezya's office for a little chat.

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He came back, completely flummoxed. "Damnedest thing I ever saw." Officer Paul said. "The state law says that he has an obligation to not give you back your own car if it is not safe. Then he showed me. He put it the transmission in Park and was able to roll it."

"Mighty sorry, Miss Bobbi, but I think you gotta stop parading around with them signs. You can't go around calling people thieves when the state says they have to."

"No problem, Officer Paul. You are just doing your job." Bobbi said.

"Hey Kendra, turn the sign around." Bobbi said as she stepped out of her sandwich sign. Flipping it over and stepping back into it revealed that the inside also had lettering.

"Ralph Skrezya screwed me." on one side. The other side of Bobbi's sign read "Ralph Skrezya has SPS" where the first "S" had "Small" written after it, the "P" had "P3n!s" and the last "S" had "Syndrome" written after it.

"I ain't accusing him of a crime, am I?" Bobbi asked. "And nothing on this sign is obscene."

Officer Paul snorted in laughter. Bobbi was clearly playing the game two moves ahead of Skrezya and she had done everything he had asked her to do. He decided to head back to his usual beat and let Ralph settle his own problems for a bit.

None of the local TV stations sent a reporter on the second day but one of the stations from Raleigh-Durham sent an intern and Bobbi was a compelling interviewee.

Skrezya was livid.

To be continued....

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