Story Peeps Change Lives

Stolen Camry

Written by VinceM

This must have happened when I was 15, at least that’s the age that pops into my head when I think back of when this happened. 

Okay, let me tell you the setting. It was July on a pleasant Thursday night in central Mass. My friend which I met in middle school (Ralph), told me that he was finally going to steal a car and take me on a joyride. 

I met Ralph in the sixth grade when I transferred from a Catholic school to a public middle school. Ralph had told a bunch of guys that he stole a car and parked it near our school. A group of us walked out of the school yard to check out his story. Sure enough there was silver Honda Accord parked at the dead end near our school.

We walked up and noticed that the ignition was pulled out of the car and that Ralph started the car with a big flat head screwdriver. Wow!

Ever since I was a little boy, I was obsessed with cars and I remember sitting in my mom’s car for hour’s every day, just pretending that I’m driving. And now, I meet this kid who’s my age and he already drives! But on top of that, he steals other people’s cars!!! Nuts!

Before long, Ralph and I became friends, simply because I wanted to drive more than anything else and this kid didn’t need anyone’s permission to drive, which I found very appealing.

So ever since I started to hangout with Ralph, I have been bugging him to steal a car. I must have asked him a hundred times before he finally did it.

Well that Wednesday night, I met up with Ralph and Sam at the local Walmart, and we began scouting the local neighborhood for the perfect car.

Ralph had something called a dent puller, or a pulley as he refereed to it. It was some type of metal rod with a screw on one side, large red weight in the center that slid up and down, and a handle at the opposite side of the screw.

Ralph said that all we had to do is find a Honda Accord or a Toyota Camry and we can get to work. Apparently all we had to do is screw the screw into the ignition and use the weight to pop out the little ignition key cylinder.

So after walking around for nearly an hour, we found a very possible contender. It was a light blue late 90’s Toyota Camry, and it was parked far from the house, behind some bushes. I walked up to the car to see if it was open, but it wasn’t.

Ralph gave me a large flathead screwdriver, and I slid it between the door glass and the door. By pulling on the screwdriver towards myself with minimal pressure, the drivers side window shattered with barely any sound.

I moved out of the way so that Ralph can use the dent puller on the ignition. He screwed it into the keyhole and “CLANK”, and another “CLANK”, as he slammed the weight from one side of the dent puller to the other. POP! The ignition cylinder popped out, and Ralph grabbed the flathead and popped it into the hole and twisted it until the car came to life!

Wow! He finally did it! Sam and I jumped into the car, and off we went for our joyride.

We drove around for a bit and then I noticed that Ralph sat so close to the steering wheel, that he looked like my grandpa fighting to see the road. I started laughing my butt off, and asked him what the hell is he doing? He said “That’s how I drive,and I’m a pro driver so chill!”.

I asked him to take us to this large hill that bottoms out pretty quickly, especially if you don’t stop at the stop sign. He drove down the hill once just to get a feel for it,and then we circled around the hood to come back to it. Ralph then floored the Camry to a whopping 50mph and aimed it down the hill. We all braced ourselves, because if you saw what we were up against, your stomach would probably be turning in knots.

We hit the bump at the very bottom and the car went a few feet in the air, then bounced very loudly on the pavement before Ralph regained control. LOL, it was fun and a little crazy. Come to think of it; it felt like a roller coaster when it goes down, then really fast up… yep it was fun.

We drove around for a bit then Ralph dropped us all at home. This was my first time in a stolen car and the whole time my adrenaline was pumping because at any minute we could have been caught.

Author Profile: VinceM

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