{"id":1675,"date":"2012-11-28T08:01:00","date_gmt":"2012-11-28T13:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.gretchenschaefer.com\/?p=1675"},"modified":"2013-03-05T09:01:05","modified_gmt":"2013-03-05T14:01:05","slug":"the-case-of-the-missing-mollusks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.gretchenschaefer.com\/?p=1675","title":{"rendered":"The Case of the Missing Mollusks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, one of my friends (who is a newspaper reporter) shared a post from the Ellsworth Police Department’s wall:<\/p>\n

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Text: “LOOKING FOR A CAR\/DRIVER WHO WAS AT SOMESVILLE ONE STOP TODAY AROUND 3PM<\/address>\n
were you driving a Blue 4 Door Chevy Car with State, “University” plates with two wreaths in the rear seat?<\/address>\n
Do you now have a large plastic tub with cups containing scallop guts intended for a research project at the University of Maine?<\/address>\n
My husband put them in the wrong car by mistake. Please call: ###-####<\/address>\n

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So… this killed me. I posted on my friend’s share, and then shared it myself with the note “You wish you lived in Maine.” I said that it had all the elements of the perfect Maine story — shellfish, evergreen wreaths, the UMaine system, science, and two unattended and unlocked cars. It got shared by others, and a reporter for the area wrote it up in the BDN:” Southwest Harbor man seeking scallop guts after putting them in the wrong car.”<\/a>\u00a0(Which is where I learned it wasn’t two cars nearby, but just a mixup, but still.) Another friend noted that the 7 digit phone number added to the perfect Maine-ness, which, I had totally missed the first time. Not to mention putting your home phone number on the PD’s Facebook wall! Mainers. We are trusting folks.<\/p>\n

It’s just the perfect Maine police beat story. In so many ways. And this morning, it was made even more perfect, when I woke to a facebook message from my graduate school advisor. “I was driving that car with the scallop guts in it. I’ll call when it gets to be a reasonable time.”<\/p>\n

I thought she was kidding. She drives a Subaru — I KNOW this! but when I replied with “You are kidding, right?! Because if you aren’t, this puts this story right over the top for me as Perfect Maine Story!!” she responded: “no… not kidding…. I posted earlier on the Ellsworth Police FB…. MAN! I was puzzled! I could NOT figure out how I missed them all the times I got in and out of the car on Monday!”<\/p>\n

Since this conversation was taking place before 7 am, the scallop guy hasn’t been reached yet. But I have the details from her side of the story:<\/p>\n

“When I got back to campus Monday night, I left a note for [redacted] saying, “what’s with those buckets in the backseat?” She was all for calling the motor pool and having them dumped. I said wait until I contact the school I was visiting to see if someone from there put them in the car. I did call the school but no one returned my call – luckily I saw your post this morning (and [the newspaper reporter’s])…. I left the original poster a message on FB but I’ll call at 7:30.”<\/p>\n

And there you have it. Social media solved the case of the missing mollusks. I had forgotten the key element of the perfect Maine story before — “you are one degree from the subject.” And now, there is no more awesome Maine story I could be a part of.<\/p>\n

Edited to add a link to the followup story on the BDN: Lost scallop guts found in car of UM associate professor<\/a>\u00a0(the other FB friend of hers was the original reporter I mentioned!)<\/p>\n

Edited a second time to add the blog post of the grad student whose scallop gonads were lost. I love the internet. Found: My lost ‘nads.<\/a><\/p>\n

Edited for a third time to add the link to the Colbert Report!<\/p>\n

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