When Preston lent his car to his cousin on Monday, he wasn't expecting her to forget where she left it.
She had never driven in downtown Minneapolis before and was nearly sideswiped navigating the busy streets. Rattled, she pulled into the first ramp she could find, somewhere near Capella Tower, she told Preston, who preferred not to have his last name used to protect his relative from embarrassment.
She left her parking ticket in the vehicle, Preston said, and went about her business.
Later, when she couldn't remember where she'd parked, she tried to use her phone to help retrace her steps. It said she was 10 to 12 minutes away from the building at 225 S. 6th Street.
Lately, her phone's GPS had been faulty — over- or underestimating how far she was from a location, and she was unable to retrace her steps on foot.
"It was like this whole perfect storm of a situation," he said.
They made phone calls to ramps across downtown, to Preston's insurance company and to the police. No one had seen the missing Honda, and Preston had heard horror stories of cars being lost in downtown Minneapolis for weeks or even years.
After two days of searching, Preston turned to Reddit to ask for help finding his car. He included all the details his cousin could remember about the inconspicuous ramp in a post in the local r/Twin Cities forum.
