Just another day in Paradise . . .

Last weekend, I was bullshi, er, talking with Officers Lugo and Izzy. They told me to look at the license plate on the jeep parked near them. I looked but didn't know what I was looking for.


They said, look at the date on the sticker -- 2002! I guess I have the tv show Lost on my mind lately, because I joked with them telling them that we are in 2002, not 2010. We are time traveling back and forth in time. They gave me permission to show the plate here, saying it was a bogus plate.


They said, ok, fine, but look at how the jeep is parked, three feet from the curb and on top of that, the jeep is parked in a "no parking" zone, right in front of the 24 Hour Fitness Gym. And, the license plate doesn't even match up with the jeep, it doesn't belong on the jeep, expired or not. 10 strikes and you're out.


So they called a tow truck and wrote up some tickets. They were proud to pose in front of the jeep being towed and while I am not crazy about how proud they look, you have to know them, they are the two nicest and funniest people you ever want to meet. They would be good on their own reality show -- Cagney and Hutch or Starsky and Lacey or something.


So as the jeep is towed away into the sunset, we are sort of disappointed that the person who left the jeep did not show up to claim it, we were assuming all sorts of things. Did they abandon it? Was it stolen, is the guy on the run? What is it? We were so curious.


A few minutes after the jeep was towed away, out of the gym walks this 19-year-old Nordic-looking blond girl, either playing the dumb blond part or really fitting the sterotype (her face is blocked here to protect the guilty), asking where her jeep was. We all almost fell on the floor with laughter. Officer Izzy got on her radio and called someone, and I had assumed she was giving the girl a break and calling the tow truck back. But she said she could not do that because of the many infractions the one old beat up jeep (and blond) caused. It made our day, not because the girl got in trouble, but because the whole incident was just so funny. Lugo and Izzy enjoy their job. Is it any wonder? I love how calmly Izzy is just standing here and listenting to the girl's story.