Scott Stephens has lived in Sequim since 1999. These days he’s a counterman at A-1 Auto Parts downtown. This week he recalled the events of his wedding weekend, seven years ago, when he wed his wife, Gena.
âWe were getting married on Port Williams beach. We were doing the whole ceremony there — my wife walking down the aisle with the music and everything. It went beautifully and we hung out about a half an hour. We had cake and stuff with
everybody.
Then we got our suitcases together and got in the car and went over toward Seattle to Tukwila.
We checked into the Embassy Suites out there. We took our suitcases up to the room. By this time, it was early evening so we jumped back in the car and went over to Crossroads by Bellevue for dinner.
We had a lovely evening there, then proceeded back to the hotel.
I got up at 7 a.m. the next morning so we could get an early start.
The car was gone.
It had our wedding license and all the presents in the trunk. We had put them there to keep from having something to entice someone to steal something. It was a well thought-out plan, or so I thought.
Instead they stole the whole damn car.
I went back up to tell my wife and she didn’t believe me.
I told her it was stolen, and she said, ‘Whatever.’ She asked me, ‘Where did you put it?’
I said, ‘No, really, it’s gone.’
She said ‘Whatever.’
Eventually I convinced her.
I told her, ‘I know I said in good times and bad, but I didn’t expect it to be the next day.’
I guess we passed that test.
I called the insurance man and he could hear my wife sobbing in the background. He said he’d have a rental there in 15 minutes. And he did.
They found it probably three weeks later. They chased the guy down and he got out and ran away on foot. They didn’t catch him. It was completely trashed.âž
Everyone has a story and now they have a place to tell it. Verbatim is a first-person column that introduces you to your neighbors as they relate in their own words some of the difficult, humorous, moving or just plain fun moments in their lives. It’s all part of the Gazette’s commitment as your community newspaper.
If you have a story for Verbatim, contact Mark Couhig at mcouhig@sequimgazette.com.
