The sighting, part two.

I had been listening to strangely squeaky hold music, and now I was talking again, trying to negotiate some understanding of what had been stolen and what hadn't; if anything.

Yes, I said, my car was a green 1999 model, but the plates it is currently wearing are, as you said, from a silver 2003 model. Therefore - (yes: I actually said 'therefore' in a telephone conversation with a cop) - if you check the VicRoads database (I continued, doing his job for him) you can compare the VIN (vehicle identification number) of the two cars. That will show you that the 924-suffixed plates do not align with my car.

I'll make a note, he said, an answer that was both non-commital and non sequitur-ish. He hung up.

Nothing happened for three months, except that I saw my car again, wearing the same plates, and I phoned the sighting through to the police again.

Last week, the phone rang. This is Corey, the caller announced, from the police. We've found your car, he told me brightly. It needs to be forensically examined, then we'll release it.

Did it happen to carry plates ending in 924? I asked, conversationally.

Why, yes - it did! he exclaimed, surprised, as if I had said something very astute. How did you know?

I told him I'd seen the car twice and advised the station accordingly, with details.

After a rustling pause that sounded like he was going back through the case notes, he murmured: That's odd. The file records when you called, but says nothing about the plates.

Sheer laziness, if not dereliction of duty, I thought to myself. I didn't have to say that to Corey; who was de facto confirming that, by admitting the omission on the part of his fellow police.

I went to pick up the car three days later. It was a mess; full of junk; bags of broken locks and keys and files which were break and enter kits; beauty cases full of way too much of the kind of make-up a certain kind of woman would use; rotting food; all the detritus of the substance abuser. The cop at the depot told me the car had been pulled over twice during the time it was stolen. Both occasions were at night, he said. He supposed they didn't notice that a metallic green car was not actually silver in the dark. Police are quite preoccupied these days.

In fact, they're busy everywhere in Australia right now.