Revenge Stories When People Get Way Too Personal

Unfortunately, a couple of days before Dad was supposed to go and help, his car broke down and it needed some major repairs (he had to order some parts that would take a while to arrive). They had no choice but to use Mom’s car.

Mom (and Dad) were nervous about this because that car (while not in mint condition) looked really good and was a prime target for car thieves. Doubly so because my parents would be at least spending the weekend when there’d be no police on duty.

However, Dad was a problem solver… and during the drive, came up with his plan to basically make the car retrievable in case of theft.

Once my parents arrived in the hometown, Dad’s first step was to call up his buddies from school (who had all become engineers, welders, or mechanics) and ask them for their help.

In exchange for some beers and some of my Mom’s delicious cooking, they agreed to help. Dad also got Grandpa involved as well… just in case

The first thing was to weld a cap on one end of an 8-inch diameter pipe that was about 2 and a half feet long.

They then filled the tube with white fluorescent paint. Once the pipe was loaded with paint, they soldered the bottom of a tin can to the open end of the pipe. They attached the tube to the undercarriage, right by the trunk. Finally, they punched a nail into the tin closing, tied the nail with a little bit of fishing line, and tied the other end of said fishing line to the wheel rim.

Here’s how it would work; when the unlucky thieves would take off, the wheel would spin, pulling out the nail. Paint would then drip out of the hole made by the nail at a slow place (because the hole was small and the tube loaded with paint).