Scrap 18

SCRAP 18
Frank is mooching about in the kiosk at the petrol station, waiting for the other customers to leave. Once he is alone with Pam he approaches the counter, a friendly smile on his face. He is a regular customer and Pam is pleased to see him as he is one of the few who take the trouble to stop for a chat.
‘How is life treating you?’ Frank selects a Mars bar from the counter display. ‘Not so bad,’ says Pam, ‘Can I get you anything else? ‘ Frank looks up at a peg board behind the counter. It is numbered from 100 to 199. ‘Well I could do with a spare key,’ he says. Pam frowns. ‘You and your car keys. You’re always losing them.’ Frank shrugs, ‘One of my few failings,’ he says, ‘only this time I bought another car and there was only one key so I’m bound to need a spare. ‘He fishes out a bunch of keys from his pocket and looks at them. ‘This is the one: FS127.’ Pam turns to the board and finds the correct key. ‘That’ll be 32p with the Mars bar.’ He pays for the purchases and pockets the key.
Frank gets back to the car and drives off towards the Island. He is always happy at how easy it is to obtain car ignition keys. With so few keys opening so many cars it is relatively easy to gain access to a vehicle whether or not it is yours. The main sets are FS, FP and FT with some really old cars needing FA series. Nobody checks that you are buying a key legitimately for your own car. He has a full set of FT keys and most of the other types. He wonders how many people are aware that there are thousands of cars with the same key numbers.
The sun is shining as Frank pulls his car off the road and onto the farm track. It is a 500 yard trip down the muddy track to his lock-up which he rents from Mad Mavis the farmer. He parks in the yard and pips the hooter to let Mavis know it is only Frank, not some intruder. She peeps out from behind a filthy net curtained window and gives him a nod.
Frank turns the key in the big padlock on the barn door, pulls out the securing chain and eases the door open just enough to get inside. Closing the door behind him he sets to work dismantling the almost new Minivan which he bought from Harry Bergman’s breaker’s yard the day before. Harry said he was a mug thinking he could rebuild it after it had been written off in a road smash but Frank was happy to pay the asking price of £50 and bring it here on the back of his trailer.
Frank has a special way of rebuilding car crash write-offs and this is going to be as good as new by the time he has finished.