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?!

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.

I’ve no idea but lock the gates so we find the answer out!

Silly question, but did the police actually check to be sure it wasn't a stolen car?

After 24 hours, I'd think the owner would've called the garage by now asking when their car would be ready. And if it was mistakenly returned to the wrong address I would have assumed that the garage would have had paperwork somewhere with the 'wrong' address on it. And the garage would have spoken to the person who dropped the car off and they'd have been able to track it down through him/her.

If it's a small market town, maybe contact the local garages if there aren't too many.

Too bad it's not easy anymore to pop a car door lock. In the old days we used to be able to do it with a bent coat hanger. Only to our own car when we locked the keys in, of course.

Stolen abandoned vehicle?

If it was an MOT drop off the person who left the car thinks they left it at the right address so the owner may think it's been stolen as it's not at their house

Local facebook is a good idea, there may already be a post from the owner

I called my mum a while ago with the suggestion it was dropped back incorrectly from MOT after comments in here. She had a look for keys but couldn't find any, it was getting dark though, she will look again in the morning. She thinks it's a definite possibility though.
Police told her not reported stolen or missing and were not at all interested.
I suggested she call round some local garages tomorrow.

Any other road names or mews names similar around OP?

@Arcadia type car reg into this and it should tell you where it was MOTd and your mom can call the garage
www.gov.uk/check-mot-history

Ahem... I think it's customary to provide a diagram on all parking related threads?

[quote VenusTiger]@Arcadia type car reg into this and it should tell you where it was MOTd and your mom can call the garage
www.gov.uk/check-mot-history[/quote]
I think you need the log book number to be able to find out the test location.

Sorry @DorisLessingsCat I know but was too tired this evening! If it's still there tomorrow I will!
Can't get test centre address without log book ref but if she finds the keys in the morning she could open the car and look for more clues and the log book! Presumably there will be invoice from MOT centre inside the envelope in the car.
It's a small town so she could call around-- test centres tomorrow and she's got nothing better to do--

If you have a tame MOT garage, they can tell you where the MOT was done.

How annoying for your mum! No idea what it could be but hope she gets to the bottom of it.

How odd

Is it worth padlocking her gates just in case someone collects the car & leaves with no explanation ?

She won't want to block the car in, she just wants it to go. She also wouldn't want any potential confrontation, as an elderly lady living alone.
I think ringing local garages is a good idea, and if they're friendly they might check it for her (where it was done). Or she may find the keys this morning. I'll call her in a bit.

I know you said the police didn't want to know but presumably that was when you or your mum spoke to the police control room.

If you can speak to the local community officer/PCSO they might be more receptive to helping especially if you point out that your mum is elderly, lives on her own and is concerned about the situation and who might potentially turn up for the car. Their mobile numbers are often available for people to use (try googling for the local police teams details for that area).

Thanks @CompleteBarstool I just googled it and found a local number which I've passed to her. We're also following up the MOT Centre idea.

@Arcadia - hopefully they'll be able to help. After all, they just need to run the registration number through their computers and ring the owner.

I've always found our local policing team excellent for non-urgent things like that as there seems to be a push towards knowing your local bobby/see them on the beat/the face of friendly local policing etc (certainly around our rural town anyway)

The mot centre will only be able to help if it's their customer, they can't see the mot station details without the log book.

I'd have broken the windscreen (presumably easier to replace than a side window) to get that envelope...

or in other words: placemarking

How strange! Nothing else to suggest other than what’s already been said but very interested to hear the outcome!

I promise to update as news comes in!

Have you tried typing the reg into Facebook? Just incase it brings up a recent post of someone asking "Has anyone seen my Volvo, registration xxxx xxx"?
It sounds like a mistake, but I've reunited a stolen car by doing that before.

Only thing I can see on twitter is this from 5 days ago in Cheshire area. twitter.com/AudlemWybunPol/status/1271033447943999488?s=19