If You Commit A Crime In Front Of Val, You Can Probably Make A Safe Getaway

Let the record show that I do not wear my glasses when I drive. I can see well enough. No need to bother with the bifocals impeding my radio-station-reading. I know where I'm going. No need to read street signs.

Today I headed to Walmart for a few necessities. Almost there, only a couple blocks to go, a truck pulled out in front of me. Not so close that I felt a need to shake my fist and curse. It's a 30 mph speed limit, and I was in no danger of colliding. But he could have waited and not forced himself in until I passed.

Anyhoo...I noticed a sign in the back of that truck. To me, it looked like it said MOBAIT. Well. Around Backroads, many things are labeled as "MO-". Standing for the state abbreviation. We have MODoT, you know. Missouri Department of Transportation. And the lottery website is molotterydotcom. So of course I ASSUMED this sign was warning people that this is a state vehicle, used by law enforcement.

I know that the MO Department of Conservation has fake deer that they set up, and hide nearby to catch people shooting the dummy out-of-season. I think in the past, some police departments (not necessarily the MO Highway Patrol) have set up cars to be stolen, to catch the perpetrators. So I was pretty sure this truck had something to do with catching drivers in the act of committing crimes, thinking they were safe, because it was just a pickup truck, not a marked law enforcement vehicle. And that the MOBAIT was on there to prove that they were not secretly setting people up to commit crimes.

Well. Sometimes, Val's suspicions are unwarranted, and sometimes, her eyesight fails her.

When I pulled up behind that MOBAIT truck at a stoplight, just before my right turn into Walmart...

I saw that it was not a law enforcement vehicle at all. MO was not baiting me! It was merely a dude in a regular pickup with a KOBALT container in the back. Hick says that KOBALT is a tool company, and those metal tool boxes can be carried to and from a job site, unlike the kind that mount across the bed of a truck.

Seriously. If I hadn't blown up that picture, or if you squint your eyes...those letters look like MOBAIT!

Never mind.