Here's One for You...

Always looking for the humors in life, this story might take the cake. Not so much because it's funny (ha ha) but rather because it's funny (due to it's defining of priorities).

Let's Begin:

My brother, his lovely wife and three adorable children have lived in Jerusalem, Israel for the past ten years. Currently pursuing his doctorate in Ancient Hebrew, my brother fits the mold of (what some may declare as) a Beautiful Mind, minus the crazy or Sheldon from the cbs show "The Big Bang Theory".

Since he's been there, he has totaled his car twice and took us on a rather interesting trip down the wrong road along the boarder of Lebanon on which two flat tires turned first into fearing for our lives, then being saved by an angel in a Kibbutz. After the most recent accident their same little car was totaled beyond repair and a prayer was answered when the aunt of my sister-in-law "donated" her car to the family. After enduring the process of delivery from Italy to Israel (by boat) and screening for anything foreign (bombs and such), paying the delivery person to smuggle in the unlabeled Italian bottle of wine in the trunk, and an exorbitant amount of fees to have the thing shipped, the car was finally released after three weeks.

Excited beyond belief, the family reveled in their new prize and rightfully so. A lovely used (yet nicer than any other you'd see on many European or Israeli streets) car was now theirs. No more worries...

The fairytale ended yesterday morning when my brother, while attempting to take his 5-year-old to school, noticed the car was gone. Though secured by both "the club" and a very advanced security system, the car had vanished. Saddened and frustrated, calls were made to local authorities and time was spent waiting for any news.

Here's where things get a bit funny (again, when a person gauges the priorities of life.)

At 11 o'clock that same night a call was received by my sister-in-law by an unknown caller stating the car was in Ramallah (a Palestinian controlled part of Israel), waiting for ransom to be paid!

Everyone they knew advised them against going into the West Bank to retrieve the car, and they were obviously relieved by this affirmation. But after a few more calls, the Italian authorities (who are Palestinian sympathizers) told my sister-in-law that if the Palestinian police were NOT in on this little ploy, the abductors could be prosecuted and likely retaliate against whomever squealed on them (i.e. my brother).

To put it simply, I've never heard of such an event, however here is the lesson of the day: people=valuable, cars=not so much.

Just this once let's hope the Palestinian cops were in on it.