Moving Jay's Car

Kenny is going to have to help me write this blog. It's his story and I want it really correct.

This happened in the mid 70's, and is quite a story! My son Kenny is a sweet, talented, rascal! He got into some normal teenage trouble and was often the instigator!

This incident happened at our Sunset, Utah 5th ward chapel. His Sunday School teacher and scout leader, Jay Gregory, whom the boys really did love, was the brunt of a very creative joke.

Kenny and several of his buddies in the class saw Jay's car unlocked one Sunday and decided to move it. It wasn't hard of course. They just got in, put it in gear, and pushed it to the north side of the building. (You could do that back then.)

Later Jay came out and couldn't find his car. He knew exactly, or at least almost exactly where he had parked it, and it wasn't there. He called the police (Sunset is a small town, and the local police knew Jay) and within a short while they found Jay's car on the north side of the church, and asked, "is this your car, Jay?" Of course, he was confused and wondered how it got there. He had parked it on the west side of the church where he usually parked it.

Jay was more careful the following Sunday and locked his car. That would have worked under normal circumstances, but as I said, I have a clever and talented son! I'm so glad he's not a criminal. He would be a clever one! It just so happened that Jay had forgotten something and drove his car home. He didn't lock it, of course, because it was in his own driveway, and he was only going to be a minute.

However, Kenny and Dale Zanone, knew Jay was going home. They ran the two blocks, stayed out of sight, knew they only had a small window of opportunity to get into that car without being caught, and knew they were taking a chance of getting caught even after getting into the car, but they didn't! They sneaked into the back and ducked down and somehow got back to the church without being seen.

They had the two back doors and the passenger side locked, so all Jay had to do was lock his own door. He did! He locked the two boys in the car. No problem! As soon as they could see they were safe, they opened the door and with the help of the other boys in the class pushed the car back to the same spot on the north side of the church.

Jay was totally perplexed!

Kenny has told me this story in the past, but just refreshed it during his visit to our home in Arizona earlier this month. He lives in Connecticut and we had a wonderful visit.

I knew as soon as he told it to me again that I was going to get this story written down and mail it to Jay. Jay has a great sense of humor and loves these boys like his own. I know he would enjoy reading the story and it would be nice for him to know who was responsible for moving his car and how his car got moved when it was locked!

Kenneth said...
That is exacly how it happened. I remember waiting week after week for Jay to forget to lock his car, hoping for a repeat of the prank, but he never forgot to lock the car.

Keep in mind it was winter and evening time frame, so our hiding in the car was easy as long as we didn't brust into laughter about the whole thing.

We stayed silent and got away with it. The thing I tried to do with these jokes was to include as many friends as possible. This reduced the chances of someone ratting us off.

Good work telling the story, I hope Jay likes hearing about it.

Love,
Kenny

1:19 PM