CARMA

 
Teddy parked his car at the Brookpark RTA Rapid Transit lot and flew to Las Vegas.  The RTA lot was cheaper than the airport lot. (This was in 2013.)

Ted didn’t come back for a long time. I thought he was going for a short vacation, but he stayed a couple months. His 2007 Ford Focus sat in the Brookpark lot.

I wondered how the car was doing, so Alice and I loaded our own car with jumper cables and a generator-pump and drove to the RTA lot, which is next to Ford Engine Plant #1 and a couple strip bars. I said to Alice, “Ted’s car is technically in Brook Park, not Cleveland. That’s good, because if the car has been towed or stolen, we can deal with Brook Park red tape better than Cleveland red tape.”

The car was there. The doors were unlocked, the tires were low, and there was an empty bottle of bourbon in the backseat. We got the car going and drove it to the Lusty Wrench in Cleveland Heights. Sam, the mechanic there, said, “The car is basically in good shape, with 89,000 miles. The battery will not make it, and as you know the side-view mirror is taped on. The tape is not a bad solution. The rear tires are round, black and hold air, but they’re not very good.”

The car worked.

Is it typical for nothing to happen to a car one leaves for two months at an RTA lot? Is Greater Cleveland this safe? I need more data. Please leave your car for two months at a Rapid Transit lot and tell me what happens.