Parked car mystery

[Arcadia]

This is a genuine mystery - feel free to speculate wildly!
My Mum lives in a market town. To access her house you got up a really narrow lane (pedestrians give you a dirty look if you drive up to it as they think it is pedestrians only but you can drive along it to access a couple of the houses). It's blocked off at one end. Mum has gates leading off the lane into her small driveway leading to a garage next to the house.
Someone has driven in and parked a car right in front of her garage and left it there for over 24 hours. She didn't see them come as she was having a nap but it was mid afternoon yesterday. They closed the gates behind them.
She can't now get her own car out of the garage.
It's a 9 year old silver Volvo. I checked number plate for her and the tax expires 1st August and the MOT expires 14th June 2021, So has just been done. There's an envelope on the front passenger seat that says 'silver volvo'. I said probably the MOT docs.
Police have said they can't help as its private property so a civil matter.
Any ideas?!

😳

Post on Facebook - anyone lost a silver Volvo?

Is there an address similar to hers that it could have been mistaken for?

So the car is physically on her property?

I'd say she has a couple of options. (1) a la another MNer, have a large delivery of gravel delivered in those massive dump trucks, and have the delivery drivers place it blocking the car in or (2) pay to get it privately towed

@RandomMess that's an idea I'm not a big fan of Facebook but I could see if there's a local Facebook group for the town and see if anyone knows who owns the car.

Like these bags I mean.

Could it be a hire car? The only hire car I’ve ever had before was a Volvo. In our village we have a dumped hire car that has been left because of coronavirus the office is apparently shut so no one has been to collect it. The location they’ve left it is odd though!

Alternatively....

www.gov.uk/report-abandoned-vehicle

Sounds like it's been dropped back at the wrong house! I'm sure the owner will be looking for it!

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz it's a really awkward space to access, we don't think a recovery truck could get to it (the lane just outside the gates is too narrow for a truck or a van). No point dumping gravel to block it in as unlikely they'll come and go as it's a really awkward space to maneouvre in and out of anyway.

Car looks dusty/cobwebby apparently.

Call the local garages who do MOT's and see if any one has just done it and delivered to the wrong house. Someone must be missing it. Did she get keys through the door.

Good point! No mention of keys but I'll ask her and suggest that about ringing round local MzoT places.

She should feel around the wheel arches etc, see if she can find a spare key hidden. Is it definitely locked?

Is it locked? If so Check the wheels to see if the keys are on there, or under pots it does seem like a garage has dropped it back to the wrong house.

A family lives in a similar set up as you’ve described and discovered a strange car parked on their driveway. Turns out it was stolen and had been dumped there by the thieves, god knows why. A neighbour also had someone abandon their car in his field once too, it was a while ago but if I recall correctly it was put down to a drink driving crash and the owner doing a runner.

I’d suggest calling the police (non emergency number obviously).

How bizarre.

My first thought was that the garage have delivered it back to what they think is the owner, but then you would have thought the keys would have been put through the letterbox.

Did any of the neighbours see anything?

A similar scenario happened twice when I was growing up.

1. mystery car appeared on our driveway and was reported to the police. Identified as belonging to friend of my dad. Dad was in another country at time but had entered into some arrangement with said friend and forgot to mention
2. Dad turned into our drive which should have been empty as our family owned one car and he was driving it. Crashed into car owned by my little brother’s mate who had just passed his driving test and come round.

So...does your mum live alone or could the mystery vehicle be traced to another family member’s associates?

Also it’s not unheard of for people to do that random park on my drive hire a parking space thing and get the wrong one. Is she anywhere near e.g. an airport - I think easyJet resumed flights yesterday!

Oooo exciting

I was going to say i wonder if someone gave their car in for MOT check etc and then asked the garage to drive it back, and put the keys through the letterbox? They have parked up at the wrong driveway and somehow posted keys to the owners actual house? For example if your mums house and the other houses dont have fences between the gardens? One of those houses could possibly own the car. Please do let us know the outcome.

Intriguing

Another place to check for the key is in the exhaust pipe 😀

I would definitely report it with the council as abandoned. However.... There’s an abandoned car near our house at the moment, been there weeks. Rang the police, they said it’s a council issue. Tried reporting it on the council website and it’s not dealing with abandoned cars as it is ‘non-urgent’ while resources are stretched. Your council might be dealing with them though!

I agree some garage has done the mot and dropped the car "back". Maybe it's one of those where it was meant to go to similar address like 1 Hilly Road and ended up at 1 Hilly Lane instead? Wouldn't be surprised if keys are in a safe spot somewhere.

But surely if someone has dropped the car back there would be keys.

She needs to phone the police back. They will be able to contact the owner.

Our mechanic once dropped back to wrong car to my parents. I am sure they get addresses wrong too.

Doesn’t sound like someone being cheeky, more like a genuine mistake.

I agree that is sounds like a genuine mistake.

Hmm interested to know the outcome.
It does sound like it's been dropped at the wrong house post MOT, but then you would think they'd post keys through the door.
Have a good look round the car for the keys, and maybe ring round some garages locally.
Failing that, ring the police back, surely they can trace owners.