The other morning as I was driving to work I noticed a big sign on the side of a building. It read, “Help support our homeless by donating your car.” While I knew that they would sell the donated cars to raise money for the homesless, it still sounded like the homeless might be taking up shelter in the donated cars.

In the parking ramp of the old state office building in Detroit someones car caught on fire. Since the car was an old beater and only had PL&PD for insurance, the owner of the car abandoned it. He wouldn’t even pay to have it towed. So, the car sat there for several years.

The people in charge of the ramp tried to get the car removed. They first called a tow truck to have the car brought to a salvage yard. But, when the tow truck driver got to the ramp, he told the state that the salvage yard would not accept the car unless the owner signed over the title. The owner did not know where the title was at and didn’t really care if the car sat there in the ramp.

Next, the facilities people tried the State Police to see if they would impound the vehicle. The State P0lice said that they only impounded cars left on the expressway. And even though the State Police post was only a few hundred feet away, they wouldn’t even go out and look at the car. They suggested calling the city police.

The city police were a little more helpful. They promised to send someone out to put an impound tag on the car. Great! But as the days turned into weeks and the week into months, the car remained in the ramp.

Since the fire was contained to the engine compartment, the interior of the car was intact. Eventually, a homeless man moved into the vehicle. He lived there through one winter and then he disappeared as suddenly as he first appeared.

It was several years before the car was removed.