Ferry rider forgets car on board

A forgetful driver on this morning's Kingston-to-Edmonds ferry run walked off the boat upon arrival, leaving behind a car and seriously disrupting the morning commute.

Ferry workers discovered the abandoned black car with paper license plates after the ferry Spokane arrived in Edmonds at 7:40 a.m. and unloaded its passengers, said Scott Davis, safety systems manager for Washington State Ferries. When a sweep of the ferry failed to turn up the driver, Edmonds police and a State Patrol officer were summoned to check the car, he said.

Meanwhile, the ferry Puyallup had arrived, also from Kingston, so the Spokane — now empty — was temporally backed out of the terminal, Davis said.

The Spokane was just pulling back into the slip, at about 8:30 a.m., when the car's owner returned, he said.

"We were prepared to tow the car off," Davis said. "And the owner sheepishly showed up."

It's happened before.

"This is not as uncommon as you would think," he said. "People that are routine passenger commuters, that typically walk on board, and that one day of the month or year that they drive on board — they just have a brain freeze and walk off with the rest of the crowd."

Diane Brooks: 425-745-7802 or dbrooks@seattletimes.com