The year long mistake

First the backround leading up to this coincidence. I had leased a car one year before which came with tax and insurance. The year was now up so I had the option to buy the car which meant taxing and insuring it myself. I am number blind, cannot remember numbers and have to write them down. I keep my car registration number written in my wallet and it ended in 779. A Kingfisher blue Rover 100. My parents had just moved house and left behind their washing line at the old house. It was a Friday in December when this coincidence happened. Thursday night my Mum phoned and asked if I could buy her a washing line and take it to them when we visited on the Saturday. I insured my car earlier in the week by phone and I had to sign the agreement and return a cheque. Friday morning on the way to work I posted the documents and cheque to the insurance company. Friday evening I called in to Solihull town centre on the way home to buy the washing line. At that time the main car park was large and temporary. It was on some development land (now a shopping centre) parallel to the high street. Along the length of the car park were about 6 different walk-throughs to the high street. I parked walked through and crossed the centre to buy the item then walked back through the same walk-through to my car. It was where I parked it of course. I clicked the electronic key but it wouldn’t open. My heart sank as I was locked out. I clicked it a few more times shook it etc. but no joy. I decided that I would have to get a taxi home to get the spare key and then come back. Then I noticed something on the back seat which was not mine. My heart started pounding as I thought the car had been broken in to. Tried the handle but it was locked. I went to the back of the car and then saw a football club sticker in the back window. Now I started to have a panic attack because I couldn’t understand what was going on. I don’t support football. I quickly checked the number plate to make sure it was my car and it was correct and ended in 779. My head was swirling as I couldn’t make sense of anything. It was definitely my car or was it? I looked around the car park but it was the only car like it. Could there be two cars with the same number anyway? I really didn’t know what to do when it suddenly dawned on me that I had come back through a different walk-through. I had parked further down when I arrived. I slowly walked in that direction only to find that behind a large white van was another identical car. But this one had a number ending in 772. I opened my wallet and took out my number written inside from when I first got the car a year before and it ended in 779. But this was my car and the key opened it. Then all became clear and I realised what had happened. I had mistakenly written down the wrong number a year before and never noticed it (believe me this does happen with me and numbers). But the coincidence is that I had just found the car I had mistakenly insured that same day without the slightest clue about what I had done. A mistake from a year ago had just been found out. I drove straight home and rang the insurance company just to be sure and they confirmed that the number I had given them earlier in the week was ending in 779. I had to change it over the phone and explained what had happened. The sales guy was amazed at the coincidence when I had to explain. If this bizarre coincidence hadn’t happened I would have been driving around in an uninsured car for months or years. Today this could not happen as insurance is centrally linked to car ownership but then it wasn’t. When I had given them the 779 number they checked it was right by asking me if it was a Kingfisher blue Rover 100? Which of course it was. The most amazing thing about this coincidence is the massive year long mistake and the exact timing of the result. If my Mum had not left her washing line behind? If I had not been visiting her that Saturday? If I had not gone to that car park that exact time, had not mistakenly used a different route back to the car? It still makes my jaw drop when I think about it.