Do I have a funny story for you! A few days after Christmas, my mom came to visit me in Manhattan from Long Island; a ritual she has been doing for the past nine years. She has parked in the same parking garage during this time, and for the most part, we have known the same parking attendants over the past nine years.

I went with my mom to the parking garage when she was ready to leave. The parking attendant took our ticket, charged her credit card and went to retrieve the car. When the car was brought out, we noticed a scratch on the bumper. Then we quickly realized this wasn’t our car. It was the same make, color and model, but not ours.

The attendant looked at it for a moment and said, “Uh oh” — never a good sign. He paused for a moment and pulled out another ticket that had been paid for and picked up 15 minutes earlier than we arrived. Turns out another woman drove away with our car!

Fifteen minutes quickly turned into 30 minutes, and we realized she wasn’t returning. After a quick look through the imposter car, we found a baby seat in the back and a fancy pair of golf clubs. We deduced our car wasn’t stolen but rather being driven by a very oblivious woman (probably dangerously) on her way to Pennsylvania, according to the car’s registration.

The woman paid with an American Express credit card. I called my AmEx platinum card concierge and explained the problem. I knew they couldn’t give me a phone number, but because I had a name, address and the last four digits of her card, she tracked down the woman and called her husband. The AmEx concierge was very nice and helpful and relayed how angry the husband was with his wife! An hour later, the husband returned the car to the garage. Finally, my mom was in the right car on her way home!

— Alex Young, vice president and associate publisher