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It’s a gut wrenching feeling to walk out to where your car is supposed to be parked and find somebody else’s happily parked vehicle.

First, your mind jumps to theft: broken in, stolen, scrapped and sold for parts. Then, reason tries to butt in: no, I must have parked somewhere else, let me ask a friend, my wife. After you’ve ensured yourself that’s where you parked, it’s time to contact the police: was I towed? do I report it stolen… At this point, most of us expect to be making a trip to the impound or (perhaps worse) filing a police report.

This past Monday, Harold S of Park Slope expected the same. Instead, to his disbelief, when he contacted NYPD, he was told that the police had in fact relocated his red Toyota Camry, but hadn’t bothered to record where they move it to.

Harold was then put in the awkward position of trying to find his needle of a car in the haystack of Park Slope. So he did what many of us wouldn’t think to do and turned to his community. He asked neighbors and friends if they’d seen a Camry with a missing rear hubcap and a dent in the front panel.

Then, he asked a different kind of community for assistance. Though Harold, 75, was unfamiliar with the workings of text messages, Facebook or Twitter, he understood the power of Roadify as a community resource, which he had heard about from a friend a few months back.

Within the hour, Roadify had posted the missing car to its Facebook profile and Tweeted for assistance in the hunt. Responses: “I’m always so terrified this will happen to me. Good thing for Roadifiers to help out . I’ll keep any eye out when I get back tonight.” “Really? that [the police lost it] is ridiculous! lol.”

Next, they alerted SMS users to be on the look out. Responses: “My car was missing for 2 months. Turned up in red hook body shop. Was towed there after a car hit it while legally parked.” “Tell him to rpt it stolen. It happened to us once and it took 3 days to find it. They had parked our car @ meter and we got 3 tickets pvb refused to throw out.”

The next morning, the Roadify community stepped up the search. The Roadify Crew went out to scout the streets and scour Park Slope (Giving open spots and buses along the way, of course) and came up with a few potentials. They then circled back, picked up Harold and identified the suspects: nope, too short… not red enough… has all its hubcaps…

And then: That’s the one! There it was, a red Toyota Camry with a missing rear hubcap and dent in the front panel, parked comfortably in a shady spot 4 blocks away from where Harold had left it legally parked two days prior. Double checking, Harold hit the unlock button on his key fob and with a happy toot-toot the car responded, as though it had missed its owner, too. With a smile, Harold hopped out of the passenger seat of the Roadifymobile and walked over to his own car, finding it safe and sound against the gut-wrenching pangs and worries.

A lost car in Brooklyn is a hard thing to get back. The hurdles are many, with so many people and cars and no parking signs and alt side regulations and…

But Harold cleared all of those with one simple solution: community. As we continue to improve our service and grow the number of people using it, we look forward to helping many more of the Harolds of the world. So next time you walk to where your car should be and it happens to be somewhere else, do what Harold did and turn to your community: the Roadify Community.

(if it is there, then Give it before you go)