Dude, where's my car?!

If only this were a comedy story.  In hindsight, it's very entertaining, but believe me, at the time it was looking like a tragedy.
So several times I have driven to a shopping center, parked, and caught the bus onto campus.  Now... having seen other people do this, and having done it many times myself with no problems, I thought it was an okay thing to do.  Worse case scenario, I thought I might get a parking ticket. Ha.
So yesterday I come back from class, get off the bus... and my car is not there. !@$@!!! Frantically look around the parking lot, scan my brain- did I drive and park here this morning? I know I drove and parked... it couldn't have been on campus, I don't have a school parking permit... Okay.  I must have been towed.  Trot over to the sign that says such-and-such company will tow if you have been in the lot for more than 24 hours (which I would never do).  It also says private property, will tow if you aren't a customer, etc, etc.  I've seen those signs everywhere and never seen anyone towed. Til now I guess.  So I call the company.  Um, we haven't towed anyone today ma'am.  You should call the police.
....... omg my car is stolen. At this point, I politely hung up and tried not to freak out in the parking lot. Did I lock it? I always lock it, and my car automatically locks anyway.  What else is in my car. @#%! My passport is also in my car from a recent errand.  Who do I call? Roommate to pick me up.
So I call my roommate and ask her if my car is parked outside our place.  She was like no, is your car missing? Yes, I think it was stolen... and proceed to explain. She is also flabbergasted, and agrees to pick me up in a few minutes.  And gives me the police non-emergency number.  So I call and they tell me a different number, which I call and report what happened.  Since I can't recite my license plate number off of the top of my head, they said they will have an officer call me back in a bit and I can give them whatever information they need when I'm home.
So roommate picks me up and drives me home.  Where I proceed to call my insurance company and start the claim process.  I decide not to call my mother until I sort some things out, because I know I'll probably have a break down when I talk to her and need to be professional on the phone to others.  As I'm finishing up with the insurance company, alternating between trying not to freak out and mentally planning how I'm going to live without a car for a while, my roommate comes flying in from her room.  Unbeknown to me, she had been on the phone with the shops where my car was parked trying to see if any of them had a security camera.  About 4-5 calls in, one of them was like, I can't believe there was a theft in broad daylight right in front of our store (this is a very busy intersection).  That's never happened before; are you sure it wasn't towed? Roommate: well, she called the number on the sign and they said they hadn't towed anybody today.  Store: I'm pretty sure I saw a wrecker out there earlier, so someone was towed.  Here's the number we have for a towing agency.

Which is different than the one posted on the sign in the lot.
So my roommate calls the number, describes my car, and low and behold, it sounds like its there.  When she ran in and told me this, I explained it to my insurance agency and said I may have found my car.  They were super nice and were like, that's great!  Call us back and we can either cancel the claim if you have your car, or set you up with a rental tomorrow if it's still missing (presumed stolen).  Geico is awesome, for all of their annoying commericials.
So my roommate takes me into Atlanta into the epitomy of sketch where the car lot is and... it's there!  YAY.
I pay $125 to get my car back, glad to just have my car.  On the way the police calls me back and I explain and they said that's fine, call us back if its not your car, otherwise you are fine, you aren't in the system yet.  This morning I called and canceled my insurance claim.  Still glad to have my car!

So there are a few times that it is not better to ask for forgiveness rather than permission.  And I've never been so happy to hear that my car was towed!