I Think It Is Cartel Abandonment.

The Saturday before last, as cars lined my street for a basketball game at the local university, I noticed a white Jeep vehicle parked a little too close to the stop sign in front of my house.

The game would only be a few hours, and I didn't think they would get in trouble. I mean, in the four years I have lived here, I've never seen them ticket anybody on the street.

Well into the next day the vehicle was still there. Unmoved. And it stayed there, ticketless, till late last week.

Then the tickets began to pile up on the windshield.

My neighbors and I chatted...

"Do you think someone went to the game, died, and the car is still here and no one they know knows?" I asked.

My neighbor's take was - I felt - way more random.

"I wonder if it is stolen by the cartel and left here," she said.

I put that out of my mind.

Till today... When I went outside to walk my dog before I started my work and saw this...

The front wheels have now been stolen, in the middle of the night.

"I'm gonna assume it's definitely abandoned intentionally now," I texted her. "Only a matter of time before someone punches in the windows."

We agreed the cops should be called officially.

It was easy to do, there is even a special number for it.

I guess this does happen a bit. Just not in my neighborhood.

It had Wyoming plates. And the tags were from October 2022.

So it's definitely abandoned.

I peered into the windows... It was relatively tidy. 

Someone told me I could petition to take possession of it, and sell it for parts.

... And while that could help ease the heartburn from the large tax bill last weekend... I want no bad vibes on me.

Especially from the cartel.