When I was based in Germany, a mate of mine was going back to England for 6 weeks for a course and asked me to look after his car, a Ford Granada. He said I could use it whilst he was away but told me that it had an issue with the clutch cable retainer which kept slipping. He showed me how to repair it, but me being me at that age, I did not pay much attention and missed the critical steps in doing this repair.......
One night, a couple of lads and I went to Hamburg in the car and lo and behold, the clutch cable went. My friend Mick, in his 1.1 Micra tried towing us (as nobody had a clue how to repair the clutch - my bad..........), but nearly burnt his car out. We decided to leave the car at the roadside, continue with the night's entertainment, then come back in the morning with a more suitable vehicle and tow the car back to camp.
It was a great plan, but one minor detail was overlooked - nobody noted the street name we left the car on!!!
We spent the next day driving around Hamburg looking for this car, but could we find it? My mate came back from England and I had to break the news to him that we had lost his car somewhere in Hamburg. I agreed, in front of our Platoon Commander, to repay him the value of the car over the next 12 months.
Jump forward a year.
My mate and I (we remained friends and actually found the whole thing rather hilarious - thank goodness!) was called into the Platoon Commander's Office one day. On entering, I noticed a rather large pile of pink slips on his desk. Turned out, they were 12 months worth of parking tickets for one Ford Granada left abandoned in Hamburg! Now knowing where the car was, we were given leave to go and retrieve it.
The car was badly sun faded and all four tyres had gone flat, but it turned over the first time! I brought four new wheels, which we swapped out, my mate fixed the clutch cable (which was a 5-second fix - doh!) and we drove back to camp.
The cost of a car, four wheels and 12 months of parking tickets just because I did not listen to a simple instruction.........
Moral of the story - NEVER look after your mate's vehicle!!!!!!