Here's What Happens When Your Car Gets Repossessed.

One day I walked outside and my car was gone.

What would your first thought be if you walked outside and your car was gone?

Heat really gave it to California this summer. The past few years have been pretty mild, hot days holding off until August and not lasting that long after. But this summer was seemingly as hot as the summers everyone else in the U.S. has been talking about.

I didn’t grow up with air conditioning, so it still feels a little weird to turn it on. The rickety 1929 Spanish Bungalow I live in in Los Angeles has no central AC so I use a collection of window units to keep whatever room I happen to be in cool (I never runt them all at once because that would be a waste). Those last few weeks of August were blaring, bright, and relentless, the constant, droning white noise of the AC units rambling all day into night. I stayed inside, mostly, only leaving the house to take Satie, my American Staffordshire Terrier, for shorter-than-normal walks on whatever shady routes I could find. I hate summer.

Finally near the beginning of September, we got some cloudy days and things started to cool off. I’ve been in a state of agitation about my financial situation for quite some time. And that state has made me feel like a failure. Whenever I speak to anyone about it, I get advice. You should meditate. You should try and have a positive outlook. You should be appreciative for all the things you have. With the cooler days finally here, I decided to take that advice to heart. It’s been a rough few years and there have been many times that felt like extenuating circumstances. Stress about work and money have kept me from being social and feeling good about my life. But if all of life becomes an extenuating circumstance, at a certain point you have to come to peace with it and try to be joyful.

On a Sunday night at the beginning of September, I decided this is it, this is my life now. Trying to get back to what my life was before is going to be fruitless, so I have to be happy with where I am currently. Maybe I’m stressed about money, but this is life. You have to make the decision to be happy in your life as it is right now, I told myself. So I drank two glasses of cheap French wine from Trader Joe’s and watched some trash TV, thinking to myself, “This is good. You’re good. Everything is okay and you are enjoying your life.”

The next morning, which was gloriously grey, I took Satie on a walk around the block. I rented a house with a yard so she could go out in the morning if she needed, but she’s taken to demanding a walk to potty, so we do that in the morning and a few times throughout the day. As I rounded the corner where I normally park my car, I couldn’t see it parked anywhere.

“Wait, do I not remember where I parked?” I thought to myself.

I rounded the block, Satie doing her normal sniffing and tugging in her normal spots. There’s a dog the lives on the other side of the block who loves to come to the window and bark his head off when we pass. I feel so bad for the owners of that house - all that barking must get annoying - but there isn’t really a block near me without a barking dog in the window. We are a dog neighborhood.

Rounding back to my house, I still didn’t see the car. I took Satie inside and got her situated then headed back outside, still in sweats and a collegiate hoodie, my go-to outfit before 11 AM.

“Wait, was it, like, stolen?” I thought to myself.

I went inside and Googled “how do I know if I my car was stolen?”

Basically all the results said call the police. But then another thought crept up. I’d just recently had a conversation with my friend Eric about cars and repossession.

“I’m a few months behind on payments,” I told him, “I’m kinda worried my car’s gonna get repossessed.”