AN OPEN LETTER TO THE FAMILY IN NEBRASKA WHO LOST THE SILVER PONTIAC GRAND AM WITH THE SMALL CRACK IN THE BUMPER

We have your car. No, we didn’t steal it. We recently bought it from a car dealer friend who got it from the auction where your finance company sold it after repossessing it. We couldn’t really afford it either, but we couldn't pass it up. My wife and I are teachers and our daughter just started college about three hours away. She needs a car, because even though she has great scholarships, she had to take an off-campus job to help pay expenses. Even though we are struggling to make the bills, we have not had to face what you’ve been going through. We’re sorry.

You can tell a lot from the condition of a person’s car. The Grand Am is really nice. The shape it was in when we got it tells me you are good people. Except for the Happy Meal toy someone lost in the cushion of the back seat, the car was clean and, with the exception of the bumper, completely undamaged. Irresponsible people don't care for their vehicles this well. You seem to be a family that plays by the rules. But the rules keep changing, don’t they? Maybe your child got sick and you had to use the car payments to cover the doctor bills. Maybe mom was laid off when the factory outsourced her job to Asia. Maybe dad couldn’t keep up with the payments because he was sent back to Iraq for yet another tour with the National Guard. Maybe keeping your home or keeping food on the table became more important than keeping your car. Whatever the problems, you are not alone. More of us are facing the same kind of struggles every day.

I understand my words are cold comfort for you. I just wanted you to know that more and more of us out here aren’t too far away from where you’ve been. We don’t know you but we will hold you in our prayers. It is our hope that soon you will get the change you need.

By the way, don’t worry about that crack in the bumper. We took care of it.

It was the least we could do.