Sykes Place: I Live. I Ride. I Am. Jeep (untill someone takes it)

*Scene- It's 6:00am. Shalee is asleep in bed, Kevin has just left the apartment on his way to work on a cold January morning. The door opens and Kevin walks back into the bedroom.

Kevin: Uh.....Shalee? The Jeep's gone...

Shalee: mmmm what?...

Kevin: Uh... Where did you park it?

Shalee: (rolling over) On the side by the garbage can.

Kevin: Well. It's gone. Should I call the cops...?

This may sound like a scence from a really bad B movie, but sadly it is a scene from my life. Early January of 2010 we awoke one morning to find the Jeep we had recently purchased had been stolen, pinched, niped, filched, taken without permission, any way you say it you feel royally violated! This is the Jeep we purchased:

We bought it and it became Kevins baby. Kevin took it upon himself to report his baby missing and went to the police station first thing. From what Kevin told me the officer was very nice, but told him the Jeep was most likely stolen by a bunch of drunks, was taken off roading, and ditched in the desert. With broken hearts we mourned the loss of our Jeep and waited for the phone call that it had been found and totaled...

In desperation we would just drive around looking for old white Jeeps. Kevin would yell "Ders mah Jeep" and we would hurry and drive over, always being disappointed.

In the meantime we were a vehicle short so we started looking again. Long story short, we ended up buying another Jeep (our Overland, yes that is the best of the best, impressed?). Here's a photo:

*Scene- It's 9:30pm, mid-February. Kevin is getting ready for bed when the phone rings. He sts on the bed.

Kevin: This is he..... Oh....... Uh huh....... Ok......... White, a broken headlight, broken center consoul, crooked rear bumper....... Yeah........ Right Now....... Ok. Shalee, we have to go to the Kennewick Police Station. They may have found our Jeep.

It's creepy going to a police station in the middle of the night. We spent an hour going over our story and photos. Finally we were going to get our Jeep back!!!

This is where the fun of this story starts! The police officer said that when they impounded our Jeep they did not even know it was stolen. Apparently a police officer saw a couple who looked suspicious get into a vehicle so he followed it. He picked them up (we don't know why) but they imponded the Jeep, and then get this. They LET THE GUY GO! It was after that they found out the Jeep was stolen and then had to find out how to get the guy again! As it turns out the dude had been using Kevins baby as a work Jeep. It was full of tools and he had welded a metal slab to the top.

So we had to go to the impound to get it back. The guy had left us some cologne, a nice assortment of Mexican CD's (fyi all of Kevins CD's were in te Jeep and are gone now), and smell. Time to get it home right? Wrong! The dang guy had switched out the ignition so our key did not work, $80 later a locksmith let us go home. t was in bad shape. Besides the smell the center consoul was broken, the speakers were blown, he cracked the plastic in the doors, an ripped out the air conditioning.

A trip to the Junk Yard and Kevin worked some magic turning it from old to new:

This is when the fun starts. We parked it at my parents since the guy was still on the loose and the next day my dad went out to inspect it. Guess what he found:

Drugs! We don't know what it was and when we gave it to the police they said to bad, it was out of the chain of custody. Oh well...

By the way, they evantually arrested the guy. A guy named Jaimes Ramon. Drity Jerk! I looked him up today. There is no record for him in any Jail in Washington for GRAND THEFT AUTO! Are you SERIOUS! It hasen't even been A YEAR!

Well last weekend we had some more fun in our Jeep. Driving home from Kristi's we noticed something strange in the air duct when the light hit it just right. Kevin finally ripped it off and his is what we found: