Norman was STOLEN!!!

Norman, a.k.a. Travis' car the Nissan Micra, was stolen from the car park at his apartment complex on Friday night (NO JOKE!!!). OK, so let me tell you the whole story.

On Friday, after the boys finished up golf, we ate at the St. Andrews Clubhouse. While having dinner, it began to pour down rain. It always "rains" in Scotland but their rain is more like a light drizzle. Well on Friday, that was not the case, it really rained. We drove ALL the way in the rain (about 1.5 hours, so not a bad drive), but we were ALL completely and totally exhausted by the time we got home on Friday (we got home around 8:30 that night). Since it was still raining, we did not want to unload everything from the car, and to be honest the only things that were in clear view to steal were the two sets of golf clubs (plus he lives in a gated complex, so we figured it would all be safe.. not to mention it is Scotland, and things getting stolen is fairly rare). I did take in all of my stuff, and Kaytlin's stuff because let's be honest, she is a baby and you never know what you will need and when you will need it, so, I decided to be "lazy" and take it all in then (Travis helped and grabbed my bag while I collected all of K's stuff).
We headed up to his flat (apartment), and it is in a very nice complex and we all pretty much crashed and burned for the night. We were all quite excited about Saturday because were planning on "sleeping in" (it is in quotes because, we have a baby so sleeping in has a whole new meaning now), plus we were going to run some last minute errands that morning and then in the afternoon we were going to the Highland Games (so British) with our good friends the Ross'. At any rate, we were all up Saturday and moving slowly (as we were all pretty exhuasted still from the previous couple of days), and Jeremy was in the shower, I was getting K to sleep (morning nap), and Travis headed out to the car to unpack... ONLY THE CAR WAS GONE!!!! Seriously, no car in site, just a Mustang Golf Towel left! I went out and searched the entire car park thinking someone MUST be playing a trick on Travis and us, but still no car.
So Travis had to call the police, and about 1.5 hours later they show up, take down statements and the police decided that they stole the car because of the golf clubs inside. I mean seriously, they could not want the Micra, could they (no offense Micra!)... but there were Jaguars, Audi's, Mini Cooper Sports, BMW's and Mercedes literally a space or two away from the Micra... given the choice, what would you pick?
I digress... Anyway, the police search outside and FIND both set of golf clubs in a "ditch" (really more like the bottom of a small hill) just behind the car park (at the complex), so then that ruled out that they were taking the car for the golf clubs (at this point we were so confused why would they want the MICRA). Next thing we hear is that they have recovered most of all the belongings from our car in a small town about 10 miles south of Aberdeen. They seriously just unloaded the car by an area where people walk their dogs and one of the dog walkers called the police because they found all of this stuff just laying there! Yet, NO CAR STILL! We were able to collect all of our stuff, and then on Sunday they found the car.
Meanwhile, the keys to the beautiful holiday home plus EXACT direction to the home were in the Norman (the stolen Micra), so Colin and Scott (our good friends) had to go to Lundin Links, get the locks changed just in case the person who stole the car decided to go there as well. It was such a headache, yet we are so grateful, because we are all ok and seriously J&I got everything back (including souvenirs we bought) except for his iPhone. Poor Travis though... they kept his D80 Nikon Camera plus 3 lenses that goes with it, his Oakley Sunglasses, and his iTouch.

WHAT AN ADVENTURE for our last day there :-) NO WORRIES though, we still had a FABULOUS time and we still LOVE Scotland and would return ANY DAY... in fact, my dad is headed over at the end of September (maybe K and I can hide in his luggage :-)

This was all that was left of Norman. Part of the "boot" (trunk)..


This is what we retrieved our stuff in...