6:30 in the morning.
It is already light.
I hear birds singing.
Fortunately, I'm waking up around the time my alarm is due to go off.
My phone is ringing.
Unknown number.
With a sleepy voice, I answer the phone. A very enthusiastic lady on the line.
Good morning! Southern Limburg Police! May I ask you something?
Oh well, I'm awake now. You can do an interview with me then...
Is the van with the licence plate Victor Tango 819 Kilo from your company?
What is a parcel van? I'm slowly starting to understand that it's about a delivery van Adrem has to go.
Yes, that could well be.
Why, what's wrong with the bus? I ask the officer.
The bus was parked in a chic neighbourhood in Meerssen.
There were a couple of officers next to the bus.
A GPS signal had led them to the bus.
Last night, a small digger was stolen from a construction site in Meerssen. This digger had GPS, which meant it could be tracked online. Our van was parked by a green space. There was no sign of the digger, so there was a high chance it had been nicked and was parked in our van.
The friendly officer asked me to come to the bus with a spare key to open it. If I didn't want to, the officers could force the lock.
I said that I found it a decent offer from the agents, but that I'd rather come by myself with the spare key.
Got dressed quickly, drove to the office, looked for the spare key and headed to Meerssen.
At the green space, our hired bus, a couple of police officers and a police car were standing.
Most of the local residents were clearly not used to it. Behind various windows, people were peeking out sneakily through the curtains. What was going on in their tidy little neighbourhood?
The bus door was quickly opened, and I lowered the tailgate.
And lo and behold, the digger was crammed into the bus.
I've encountered quite a few strange items on hire buses, but I hadn't experienced a digger before. How on earth had they got that thing on the bus? If they'd used the tail lift, it would certainly have given up the ghost.
There were two ramps next to the digger. We could use those well now to get the small excavator out of the bus.
Back in the office, we gave the bus tenant a call.
He knew nothing – he had lent the bus to his brother.
Haha.
If you need to transport anything other than stolen GPS-equipped excavators, you are most welcome to rent a bus.
In Sittard, we're full this weekend., in Maastricht and Heerlen there are still a few available:https://adremlimburg.nl/goedkoop-huren/bestelbus-huren/
