Sometimes it's better to lose!

Hello to everyone, Judy here.  Pat asked me to share one of my many UNUSUAL  adventures in picking and this story immediately came to my mind.  So read on and remember, PICKING CAN BE BIZARRE!!:

                                                             The Chevy Van Story

This all happened some time back in '97 or '98 but is one of my more unusual stories about picking.

     My sister, Cherie, and I were really into pickin' at storage units.  We would follow an auctioneer from location to location until we ran out of money or there were no more units to bid on.  We started out one day on a U-Haul Storage circuit, following the auctioneer from place to place.  We had successfully bid on 3 units at various places and were running really low on funds.  We went to the last location somewhere out in the boondocks, our last for the day, hoping to pick up a cheap unit.  We knew everyone else on the "tour" were also running low on funds so we knew we had a good chance for one more winning bid.

     When we arrived, there was a lady and her grown nephew there waiting for the auctioneer & group.  She said she had been busy all day and was so glad she had caught up with us.  We all growled - fresh money and competition!  Cherie and I looked at several units but they went too high for us.  Finally the auctioneer
told us that the next unit just had a vehicle in it.  The auction company had cleared the title and the car, a blue Chevy cargo van, had no criminal record and could be driven off the property, if it still ran and if there was a key in it.  He said we could actually go in the unit and peek in the windows since it was the only thing in the unit.

     All 15 or so pickers including the lady and nephew who had joined up with us went into the unit.  We could see there were some things in the back of the van but they were covered up.  Now I really wanted this van.  It was a picker's dream vehicle!!  The bidding started and, as I remember, I quit bidding at $400.00.  I was out of money.  New lady with the nephew also really wanted the van and she finally got it for $600.00 and was visibly over-joyed.  I was crushed and dreamed about the fantastic blue Chevy cargo picker's van that night!

     A couple of months later I was at another storage unit auction and there was the lady and her nephew.  I said, Hi.  You still driving MY van - haha. She said - Girl there it is sitting over there.  She pointed at the parking lot and there it was, all shined up.  I asked her what she had found in the van and she told me it was full of antique clocks and tools.  She said she sold the clocks and was able to buy her daughter a car!  I told her that, although I was terribly jealous, I was happy for her.

     She then told me, that's not all it had.  She said that the headliner kept coming loose and she kept poking it up but it would just come loose again.  She asked her nephew to fix it or get it fixed for her.   She said he got in the van to take a look at the headliner as she went into her house.  She said he came running in a few minutes later with 4 big packages of pure cocaine!!! I almost dropped my teeth when she said that!.  Here she had been driving that van for over a month with hidden contraband  in the headliner!

     I asked if she had called the police.  She told me - Honey, that would be just like throwing my pocketbook in the dumpster.  She said her nephew took the "packages" and sold them for $65,000.00!!!!

     After I heard that, I didn't feel so bad about losing that van 'cause no matter HOW much I may need money, selling drugs is just NOT an option!!
     Well, this is just one of my many picking stories and definitely one of the most bizarre---but stay tuned, I'm sure there will be more to come!!!!

                         UNTIL THEN, KEEP ON PICKING!!!!!