ONTARIO WOMAN ACCIDENTALLY STEALS CAR.

Thought black Infiniti was her Nissan rental

It can happen out there, amid life’s hustle and bustle, when you are in a rush and your mind is in a million different places, and you park your car, for instance, in an underground parking lot, and return some time later, after running an errand, and realize you have no recollection as to where you actually parked the car in the first place.

In Cornwall, Ont., the where-the-hell-did-i-park scenario took on a strange and novel twist recently, after a black Infiniti, that was reported missing from a Walmart parking lot in late June, was found when a woman tried to return it to a local car rental company.

The woman, a local herself, wasn’t a repentant car thief, but merely confused and possibly in a rush on the day she rented a car — a black Nissan Sentra — and drove straight to Walmart to do a little shopping. Upon exiting the store, she climbed in a black Infiniti — the vehicle was open and the key’s were in the ignition — and drove home. Soon after, a local man exited the store and began wandering about the parking lot in an increasing state of agitation, before concluding that his black Infiniti had been stolen, and calling police to report the theft.

Meanwhile, for the next two weeks, the woman, driving the Infiniti, trundled around the greater Cornwall area doing her thing, before returning the car to the rental place. She informed the manager that she wasn’t entirely happy with the car. For one, it was messy when she picked it up — and there was a set of golf clubs in the trunk. The rental car manager examined the woman’s keys and noted that, in fact, she had rented a Nissan Sentra, while the keys in her possession belonged to an Infiniti.

And so began the sleuthing, as the car rental manager and the embarrassed renter started retracing her steps, beginning in the Walmart parking lot. There sat the Nissan Sentra, exactly where the woman had parked it two weeks earlier. Cue a phone call to police and, soon after, a happy reunion between a car whose rightful owner believed it had been stolen, instead of borrowed by mistake.

“This isn’t something you see everyday, but it is something that could happen,” said Stephanie Macrae, a spokesperson with the Cornwall Community Police Service. “You should never leave your key fob or keys in your vehicle — and always remember to lock your car doors before walking away from your car.”