19-year-old Gavin Strickland made the trip from Syracuse, New York, to Toronto for a Metallica concert on Sunday but was left stranded when he forgot where he parked. Strickland remembered all the smaller details, like what level he parked on. But that info is ultimately useless if you forget where the garage itself is, and that’s exactly what happened. So Strickland’s father posted a Craigslist ad asking for help locating the car.
Strickland remembered just enough to make this an exciting scavenger hunt for a bunch of … Torontons? Torontites?Torontonians? Anyway, 26-year-old Madison Riddolls found the car during a search with her boyfriend and received the $100 reward.
My car was found! And the story is so crazy it's on the news all over Canada. I've become famous over a lost car
— Gavin Strickland (@gpstrickland31) July 20, 2017
When Strickland returned to Toronto to pick up his car, Riddolls presented him with a map of Toronto.
The situation turned into a win-win as Strickland received his car and Riddolls got to experience the thrill of a real-life scavenger hunt. Here’s what she told CTV News:
“I love puzzles, I love challenges and escape rooms, all that. I read a few clues about where it could be and it honestly excited me,” she told CTV News Toronto on Thursday.
“Wednesday night, my boyfriend and I took his car out and we went for a drive. We started with every Starbucks with a construction zone and a bank nearby.”
[…]
“We came down here (to the parking garage) and I just as I started thinking this wasn’t going to happen, I turned a corner and there it was,” she said.
The garage even waived Strickland’s parking fees, charging him for only the night of the concert. Canadians sure are nice.