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What's the Most Embarassing Thing You've Left atop Your Car... Before Driving Off

The worst thing I left on my car? Seriously? SNOW.

When I was younger (and admittedly a bit dumber) I had a bunch of white fluffy snow on my car. It cleaned right off my windows with just a quick blow. So I figured it would blow off the rest of my car by the time I hit 20 MPH. (and most of it did) Then when I got on the highway, I heard this god-awful noise, and saw a HUGE sheet of ice that was under that snow fly off my roof right in my rear view. It took off in ONE piece like a fricken plane! It started heading towards the median, and I began to @($t a brick - It then NAILED an overhead freeway sign.

I thank my lucky @$$ it didn't hit an oncoming car. To stay intact in a 65mph wind - it must have been SOLID - and to hit a windshield at 130MPH could have been very bad.

Then, in a twist of fate - just a week later - it happened to ME. A massive ice-sheet came off the top of a semi - and because (and ONLY because) I was looking at that truck thinking to myself "man, imagine what would happen if a truck-sized piece of ice fell" .... Sure as hell - guess what lifted off his roof? I slammed on my brakes and broke hard right. It actualy "slapped" the ground firmly where I likely would have been.

Yeowza.

Now I clean my roof squeaky clean, and stay the F away from anything with snow on it - or that even "might" have snow on it - while on the freeway.
 
Similar thing happened to me, except when i was braking. It slid off onto the front of the car and tore the hood off! That was the most insane thing that's ever happened to me.
 
Big-TDI-Guy said:
The worst thing I left on my car? Seriously? SNOW.

When I was younger (and admittedly a bit dumber) I had a bunch of white fluffy snow on my car. It cleaned right off my windows with just a quick blow. So I figured it would blow off the rest of my car by the time I hit 20 MPH. (and most of it did) Then when I got on the highway, I heard this god-awful noise, and saw a HUGE sheet of ice that was under that snow fly off my roof right in my rear view. It took off in ONE piece like a fricken plane! It started heading towards the median, and I began to @($t a brick - It then NAILED an overhead freeway sign.

I thank my lucky @$$ it didn't hit an oncoming car. To stay intact in a 65mph wind - it must have been SOLID - and to hit a windshield at 130MPH could have been very bad.

Then, in a twist of fate - just a week later - it happened to ME. A massive ice-sheet came off the top of a semi - and because (and ONLY because) I was looking at that truck thinking to myself "man, imagine what would happen if a truck-sized piece of ice fell" .... Sure as hell - guess what lifted off his roof? I slammed on my brakes and broke hard right. It actualy "slapped" the ground firmly where I likely would have been.

Yeowza.

Now I clean my roof squeaky clean, and stay the F away from anything with snow on it - or that even "might" have snow on it - while on the freeway.
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That's pretty insane. I spent the last 4 years in Michigan and experienced similar situations, although none were quite that intense. I followed a semi once that kept throwing chunks of ice randomly and I was having to dodge them, but nothing very big. But those days are over since I will most likely not drive in snow again for quite awhile.
 
Had a cpl close calls with leaving things on top of the car. I think most everyone has left a drink of some kind up there.

Once I left a set of key on there, and my wife took off using her set. Somehow the keys slid to one of the doors and one key got lodged in the weatherstripping so they didnt fall off.

The next thing was my Blackberry. Im driving and I start looking for my phone. Cant find it. Then I hear this clunk on the roof and think "oh no! Please tell me I didnt." Pulled over and was relieved and suprised to see it was still up there. Thankfully the vehicle had a luggage rack that kept it from sliding off.
 
naftalim said:
My Sharp Wizard
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I used one of those long ago when I was repairing medical lasers. WOW that took me back. The one we had was a "holy grail" / magnificent device given to us by god himself according to my old boss. I used to PRAY that thing got left on the top of a car - or smashed / stolen at the airports. I hated using it for servicing these units. 16 characters fly by fast in terminal mode - so writing down large data sets and manipulating it, not very fun.

Of course - bossman finally broke down and got me a printer a long time later - which saved me the tedious work on ONE service call. By then I had already gotten the gears moving on a Laptop. The Wizard went back to it's primary job of collecting dust thereafter.

Bet you 10 bucks it's still in the same room I left it, right next to it's HP counterpart. Along with the thermal printer that would double in mass when alkalines are in it.

"Let's not get stupid..."

When were we not stupid? Did I sleep in too late, or miss that day entirely?
:)
 
My father's Canon F-1 camera. I was sixteen at the time. Luckily I stopped to see what everyone was screaming at me about.

Adult life: I left a full coffee cup on top of my old Volvo and drove six blocks to drop my daughter off at daycare. It survived to appease my caffeine needs for the day. She still laughs about that.
 
Three things I can think of;
1) Bottle of water, meh just had some odd looks from people as I drove off.
2) Camera, frantic waving stopped me before leaving the car park. No damage, but a bit embarrassing as the waving was by my brother who'd just given me the camera as a birthday gift before leaving the restaurant.
3) Telephone, heard a thump against the car as I drove away and thought it was odd as there was nothing about I could clipped with the wing mirror or whatever... sudden realization after about 300m that I'd taken my phone out of my top pocket and put it on the roof while bending to load stuff in as I didn't want it dropping out of the pocket. The phone was gone by the time I got back less than 10mins. later, but turned up at the local Police lost and found and was still working perfectly a couple of days later, Nokia FTW:D
 
Big-TDI-Guy said:
Now I clean my roof squeaky clean, and stay the F away from anything with snow on it - or that even "might" have snow on it - while on the freeway.
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Man, that brings back memories of when I lived up in the icy North. I "fixed the glitch" by moving to Austin. Here, when it does snow, it melts by noon and nobody expects you to actually drive in it or anything insane like that. :)
 
HAHAHAHAHAHA. This thread is a blast. My wife and I just got beaten up in our home a week ago by a crazy neighbor and this actually made me laugh. I was wondering if I would ever do that again.

I've left everything on my car over my too-many years on this planet. The funniest was a very large potted plant I left on my small Toyota when I was in my early 20s. After about 25 miles driving through city streets, I turned a corner and hear a loud crash. Out of the corner of my eye I saw my plant in my favorite hand-made pot being splattered all over the sidewalk and against a building. How absurd I must have looked to other drivers with my plant standing up proudly on the roof of my car. Funny thing is, no one gestured to let me know that it was up there. Bastards... :D
 
mgguy said:
HAHAHAHAHAHA. This thread is a blast. My wife and I just got beaten up in our home a week ago by a crazy neighbor and this actually made me laugh. I was wondering if I would ever do that again.
...
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:eek: Wow that's awful! But I'm glad it sounds like you're 'okay'. And laughing is bloody great, nothing worse than not being able to laugh, joke and have fun; I make a point of cracking joke at what some might think are inappropriate moments because laughter is the best medicine.... except for arterial bleeds, where you're better off with a coagulant or going a surgical route.

mgguy said:
…I've left everything on my car over my too-many years on this planet.....
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Wow that has to be hard on your suspension.
 
mgguy said:
HAHAHAHAHAHA. This thread is a blast. My wife and I just got beaten up in our home a week ago by a crazy neighbor and this actually made me laugh. I was wondering if I would ever do that again.
Click to expand...

That is filed under Sub Chapter J - Book 17 - Page 211: "Reason 174,936 I will never l live in California."

:D
 
I didn't mean to get too serious in this thread. Just needed to let off a little anxiety by sharing a little humor. I started writing more details about the attack on us, but my wife noticed and put a stop to it. She is so traumatized and stressed out that she doesn't want any details posted at this point. I have heard that victims of physical battery go into sort of a PTSD response where fear runs rampant, and I am now realizing that this is happening to her and to me to a smaller extent as well. Anyway, thanks for the kind words of support. This forum is a great distraction from chaos and I will continue to participate as time allows.
 
My dad leaves his coffee on the roof a lot, but not as much anymore... maybe he learned from all the disasters. The worst things I left on the roof were a flashlight (a tough one that quickly slid off and broke) and a can of RC cola that flowed off into the window and gummed it up so it would never go up without a fight if it went down.
 
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