For about a month and a half now there has been an, apparently abandoned, car parked on the verge outside our offices on the corner of Kent and Bond street Ferndale. Initially we all assumed that the car had just run out of petrol or suffered some malfunction and that the owner would be back to pick up the car.
Days have stretched into weeks and no-one seems interested in claiming the car. We have noticed that the front window has been rolled down almost intentionally inviting someone to "step inside". Everyone at the office park has began to wonder how come the car had not yet been claimed, or given its location, stolen.
Theories have began to surface. Maybe there is a body in the trunk or a million bucks? Tenants from the office park have phoned the Metro police who came to have look and then said they couldn't do anything because the car had not been reported stolen.
Insurance scam theory
As the weeks have dragged on some consensus stories have began to emerge about the mysterious car. One story is that the car was inherited by an unnamed individual who decided that the best way to turn the car into cash is to have it conveniently stolen. He hatched a plot to leave the car on the corner of Kent and Bond, wait a few days till it got pinched, and then make an insurance claim.
This seems like a real stupid plan to me if its true. Besides the chance of being caught for fraud the car may be recovered and returned to the owner with no benefit. Also it just seems easier to sell the car directly for cash. If the story is true the owner must be the biggest looser in South Africa. He can't even get his car stolen no matter how hard he tries. In the mean time the car has begun to be vandalized with someone having stolen the lights already. In the end he may just be left with a empty, worthless shell.
If it ever does get stolen it has been abandoned so long and so much attention has been drawn to it that I am pretty sure the insurance company will have little difficulty uncovering the scam.
Vengeful spirit
The story I like is that the car is possessed by a vengeful spirit, possibly the victim of a hijacking gone wrong. Any crimals who steals the car dirve off, and are never heard of again, with the car reappearing before dawn waiting for more victims.
