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A funny thing happened today… well not so funny… Karmic in the end… rather satisfying in some ways… but read on.
I took my two kids to Calaway Park today… we arrived at about 2:00pm intending to stay until suppertime or so.
We went in… had a good time (as usual) and left to go home about 5:00pm.
Anyone going into the Calaway Amusement Park in the past will know there are double rows of cars labeled A – Z… A VERY LARGE PARKING LOT indeed.
We go out to the parking lot… walk around looking for the minivan (Plain Jane Dodge Caravan… nothing fancy) and six days prior to my 40^th Birthday… when I was having difficulty locating my minivan out of the multitude of vehicles crammed together, I started thinking that I had “misplaced” my Van like I do with my car keys occasionally.
“I KNOW I parked in the “D” section or damn close to it because it’s the initial of my first name”
Well, after the three of us scouring the parking lot quite thoroughly for the van with no luck, I now come to the conclusion my Van was STOLEN!
We go through the regular hoopla of calling the City Police, where they inform me I have to file the report with the Cochrane RCMP since Calaway Park is ‘closer’ to Cochrane than Calgary.
When was it stolen you ask?? Logically, it was stolen between 2:00pm and 5:00pm. Three whole hours!
I then file the report with them, they tell me the ‘standard’ We’re really sorry, the Van is in the system now as ‘stolen’ but until it shows up (IF) we’ll have to contact the insurance company etc.
By this time, I’ve called my Father-in-Law Jim to ask him if he can pick us up and take us home…. filled out several reports and now wait for Jim to arrive. While waiting, my Daughter tells me her Nintendo DS  two games were in the van as well and was audibly upset that it’s gone and my Son is somewhat ticked he just lost two paperback books he brought along for the ‘ride’ as well.
I explain, very calmly, that YES IT SUCKS this happened, but these ‘things’ can be replaced and it could have been much worse! That’s why we pay for car insurance… it will all be fixed, or replaced… no big deal.
Silently, I prayed to my Gods that justice would be done to the bastard(s) that took my Van… on the other hand I thanked the Goddess for keeping my kids and I safe from ‘harm’; from what “could” have happened.
Jim arrives about 7:45pm to pick us up but announces that he needs gas soon as there were no gas stations the route he took from the extreme south side of Calgary to Calaway Park… so he decides to go the standard route back home through Calgary in order for us to refuel the PT Cruiser.
Here’s where Karma takes place…

We drive on the TransCanada highway back to Calgary and we are all chatting about the stolen van incident and such and as we are chatting, Ahead, I notice a white Dodge Caravan in the right lane with two very distinct window stickers on the back of it… “Funny… That looks like my Van stopped at the lights!”
We pull up slowly behind it and LO and BEHOLD, it’s MY vehicle license plate… For a sheer moment I want to tell Jim to pull up so I can pummel the idiot and take my Van back… then I see there are TWO guys in the van. I reconsider my previous thought and decide to call 911.
About 8:00pm; I tell the 911 operator that I was reporting a crime in progress, tell her the situation and that we are following MY stolen van and the two guys driving it… I give those locations, directions and we follow them from TransCanada highway and Stoney Trail intersection onto southbound Sarcee Trail, past Bow Trail and stop at whatever the next light is. All the while this 911 operator is directing the Police to where this thieves and my Van are.
The 911 operator by now has advised us (the victim as she put it) several times to break off the pursuit of the thieves… and I wholeheartedly ignored the operator for a while I’m excited we might actually catch the bastards.
Then reality hits again… Jim tells me we REALLY need to stop for gas. I FORGOT about that! The orange low fuel light glowing in the PT Cruiser’s dashboard reminding us.
Jim had to gun it to keep up with them at a yellow light, nearly running a red light to stay with them.
I think its about this time the thieves had clued in that there was a beige PT Cruiser behind them with someone talking on a cell phone and seemed to be following them, They change lanes… so did we, and the abruptly turn westbound onto 17 Avenue off Sarcee Trail. They accelerated a bit faster and we accelerated up too… but we decided to break off the chase and let the Police take over.
We met an officer at a nearby market mall (Sirocco Market or something) where I told them what was going on. They took a quick statement and asked me if there were any identifiable marks on the van… and that’s when it hit me!
My Van had a very unique paint stripped rooftop inside the roof rack!! Very identifiable from the AIR!
The officers heard me say this and called in HAWCS (Calgary’s Police helicopter) which was just refueling and was going to take off in pursuit. They told us to hang about for a little while to see if they could capture them soon-ish.
About 20 minutes later the Constable showed up near the gas station where we were waiting to tell us that they “GOT THEM”! He also said that my description of the Van roof was instrumental for the HAWCS Team to spot them just 5 minutes south of where we were in the West Hills Shopping Centre District.
We follow the helpful Constable a little while later to the location of my Van to help them identify “a few” things the thieves were caught with in the Van and to make sure they weren’t our possessions; after they have hauled the thieves asses away of course!
We arrive with many people from the nearby Mall businesses looking on at the spectacle before them. I go take a ‘look’ at the damage… and find my once spotless clean interior completely full of clothing, articles I couldn’t identify, LOTS of Ziplocs full of drugs (prescription, over-the-counter and narcotics, bandages, garbage and all sorts of things.
The Constables ask me if any of this (his hands sweep over the drugs) is mine.
I respond with: “Ummm NOOOO!… and even if it were, I wouldn’t say so…” (trying to crack a joke…LOL) They smiled, knowing I was joking. Thank the Gods.
Surprisingly, the thieves only broke my ignition and the Van was in drivable condition; they spared the steering column method of hotwiring the vehicle, saving me (and the insurance company) at least a thousand dollars of repairs.
My daughter’s cherished Nintendo DS and two games are gone… probably pawned or sold to a passerby at Calaway Park… My air compressor is gone, also probably pawned, although I have NO idea WHY… it was worthless, but valuable within an emergency roadside kit. The thieves not having an ashtray use my plastic console drink holder as an ashtray. Garbage, tools of their thieving trade litter the front cab portion of the floor of the van.
I arrived home at 10:30pm, tired of the days exciting and seemingly karmic events…. Thinking about it now…

1. If they stole the van between the hours of 2:00pm and 5:00pm… and we drive up behind them at 8:00pm just coming into Calgary… Where were they for three hours?
2. Jim normally would take the opposite direction back home from Calaway Park… but circumstances make it necessary for him to come through Calgary instead to get fuel.
3. What are the odds that a victim of a vehicle theft three hours ago would drive up behind his OWN stolen vehicle (at least!) three hours after the crime had been committed?
4. Why had I procrastinated in touching up the white paint on the roof of our Van; that was starting to rust from lack of attention? (it’s a $30 - $40 fix and about an hour worth of work)

Karma IS a bitch… isn’t it??    LOL for the thieves… IT IS!
I think I’ll go buy a lottery ticket(s) or enter our names in a Dream Home lottery or something… somebody up there REALLY likes me!