These Are The Worst Things You Have Left On Your Roof

When you're laden up with stuff and getting ready to clamber into your car, the roof can feel like an obvious place to rest something while you open the door. But, it's also an easy spot to leave, and forget, something important before you set off.

After realizing that most of us here in the Jalopnik Global Control Center have at one time or another left something on the roof as we drove off, we figured you lot would probably have made the same mistake too. So, we asked you "What Was the Worst Thing You Left on Your Roof?"

From lunchboxes to laptops, here are some of the best responses we received.

"My girlfriend and I were both leaving at the same time to go to work. I somehow left my lunch on top of her car. I saw her a few minutes later in traffic. I stopped her, got my lunch, and continued on to work."

The first, and probably the only, entry in today's Answer of the Day that comes with a happy ending.

Suggested by: hangovergrenade

"My brother was best man at a wedding, so he had the box with the wedding rings. He 'temporarily' put the box on top of the car, forgot about it, then got in and started the car and backed up. He braked for the street, then continued backing up...right over the wedding rings that had just tumbled off. The ring box was completely destroyed.

"Lucky for him, the rings were undamaged, the wedding went off without a(nother) hitch, and they're all friends to this day.

"He has also lost several phones that he left on top of his cars over the years. Yes, he's a professor, why do you ask? #absentminded."

Oh my, this is not a good thing to leave on the roof of your car! At least these wedding rings were recovered, but I wonder at what point they told the happy couple about the mishap?

Suggested by: Neal Zondlo (Facebook)

"If we extend the meaning of 'roof' to include the top surface of the car, I went into total dumbass mode while driving – real moron-plus level.

"Setting up the scene, the fuel cap of the 2nd gen Charger on the top surface of the driver's side quarter panel. When you shove in the gas pump nozzle, it goes straight down.

"So I'm getting gas and someone comes over and yaps at me about the Charger – happens all the time. The gas automatically shuts off. I finished my conversation, got in the Charger and drove off. Minutes later someone pulls next to me on the street and keeps motioning towards the rear of the Charger. I look closer in the dinky rear view mirror – thanks to the crossways leverage, the fuel nozzle was still in the gas intake. I yanked it right off the pump when I left – oh shit.

"I turned into a side street, pulled out the nozzle and threw it into a bush. So yeah, not my finest hour at driving."

We here at Jalopnik do not condone the dumping of gas station nozzles in bushes.

Suggested by: the1969dodgechargerguy

"2002, my art box while getting into my car while being on my phone after night class. It wasn't until I heard it fall off and get smashed to pieces by traffic behind me that someone in the next lane finally told me about it. Lesson learned."

What's your favorite idea? Mine is being creative.

How do you get the idea? I just try to think creatively.

Suggested by: Joey Patel (Facebook)

"It was the 4th of July. My wife and I were taking the kids to my parents' house to cook out together and enjoy the day. We agreed to bring dessert, which was IMHO damn impressive. Tons of precision craftsmanship went into arranging strawberries, blueberries and whipped cream to create what looked to be an insanely delicious red, white and blue pie.

"It smelled inviting and tantalizing after it emerged from the oven. We added the whipped cream to put the final touch on the most patriotic American pie ever created.

"Then, we loaded the kids into our 2000 Mercury Sable wagon (AMERICA!), and headed out to my parents house... except we forgot that one of us set the pie on the roof while we buckled up the kids.

"That brave little AMERICAN pie made it about three blocks before it flew off the roof and made a picturesque red, white and blue puddle in the street."

What's the worst kind of pie to leave on your roof? Maybe that is a whole other question for a whole other day.

Suggested by: sidbridge

"A pizza. Saw it slide off as I went around a corner and briefly considered turning around to pick it up. It landed right side up!"

"When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore" takes on a whole new meaning when you know it's about a pizza flying off a car roof on the highway.

Suggested by: Larry Turner (Facebook)

"On a Friday, I stopped at Joyceville on the 401 between Toronto and Montreal for fill-up and a snack. I then had my X1/9, a very low car. After getting my snack, I put down my man purse and the roof to unlock the car. Got in the car and drove away.

"When I got to Montreal I realized the loss of the purse (money, credit cards, ID, etc.). A friend was kind enough to lend money while being in Montreal. On Monday, when I got back to Toronto, the OPP called me and told me someone dropped by their station with my purse, with all its content, money and all. It was found on the access road to the 401!"

Well, that was an emotional rollercoaster!

Suggested by: minardi

"I haven't left anything on the roof, but my uncle left a box of fresh donuts he was bringing us on the roof of his car."

While I sit here, eating a jelly donut, this makes me immensely sad.

Suggested by: Joseph Middleton (Facebook)

"Not me, but a friend of mine was struggling with too many things in his hands loading up his brand new 4runner for its first weekend outing. Tossed a day-pack on the roof and forgot about it.

"As he pulled out, the pack found the garage door release, pulled it, and the big two-car garage door went all Marie Antoinette on his brand new 4runner.

"Needed a new hood, new grille, and new headlights. Had less than a hundred miles on it."

Backpack, backpack. I'm the backpack loaded up with things and knickknacks too. Anything that you might need, I've got inside for you.

Suggested by: tycho13

"The spare key and remote to my Volvo. Found the key in the road 3 weeks later but the remote was smashed into oblivion. Still using that key, though!"

Time for another game of that old classic, big keys or tiny hands?

Suggested by: Collin Blackburn (Facebook)

"I needed to send it, so I ordered a delivery company to pick it up from work before 2pm. They weren't there at 2pm and at 2:30 I had to go, so I tried to call to see where they were. The call got answered by a computer that asked for an order number consisting of 37 digits and letters (ok, maybe it was 12). Problem is, the computer spoke Spanish and while I speak decent Spanish, the computer did not recognize my pronunciation. So I tried 154 times ( ok, maybe eight). One time I managed to pass the hurdle and navigate the menu and talk to a human when I got disconnected.

"I gave up, had to go. I always have the car key in my pocket, but for some reason it was in my bag. And it found the way to the bottom of course. So I put the iPad on the roof, fished for the keys, got into the car and drove off. After 50 meters or so, I heard a strange sound. Luckily I checked my mirrors so I could see the box tumbling down the road.

"Gladly I packed it well and it survived without damage. Went to a post office which had humans behind the counter and it arrived on time at its destination."

From 37, "OK, maybe it was 12" to 154 "OK, maybe it was eight" I'm suspicious that this story should actually have been about an iPad (OK, maybe it was a notebook).

Suggested by: EStuitos

"Left my wallet there. Was still on the roof 20 miles down the road when I pulled up the driveway."

Ok, but did you check for magnets, glue, velcro or anything else that was holding the wallet in place?

Suggested by: Emmanuel Monge (Facebook)

"I can't recall anything more significant than a coffee cup, and for many years our car had a Thule roof rack that acted as a fence so I once drove several blocks without spilling the cup

"My most noteworthy fell off the vehicle experience was returning from a motorcycle rally and one of the sleeping bags on top of my BMW's saddle bags slid out of the tie-downs and went bouncing down the shoulder of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Cue me running down the shoulder with a flashlight, finding it and re-securing. Apart from a hole in the stuff sack the sleeping bag survived a 60 mph get off. I did briefly consider some screw in tie down loops but decided my system of running two 6' straps around the hard bag, frame and sleeping bag actually worked fine.

"The worst car destruction I saw was laptop computers, some from the roof but most got run over by people at the Arizona site. Since their cars were blazing hot at 5:00, they set their laptop bag in the shade under the car, start the engine and AC to cool the car and then forget the laptop, back up and crunch!"

I guess roof racks are designed for holding things in place. I'm just not sure the people at Thule were thinking about coffee cups when they started designing their latest and greatest.

Suggested by: geoff-vader

"I was a tech at a software company. One morning a manager shows up at my desk with one of our laptops soaking wet saying he found it in our parking lot. Turns out the employee left it on his roof and drove off."

Put it in a box of rice, that fixes all tech-related issues – or so I'm told.

Suggested by: Julio Roman DeLeon (Facebook)

"Started driving off with a friend of mine on the roof.

"I was leaving a summer camp as a volunteer/leader back in high school. I start to pull out of my parking space and a fellow high schooler camp leader jumps on the hood of my car, screaming that I'm supposed to take him and someone else home. No one told me this beforehand, so I don't believe him and start to leave (me a busy high schooler with places to be and video games to play and all that). He jumps off as I start to go again, then he jumps back on the roof holding on to the luggage racks up there. He didn't get back off until I was up to the main road, a good mile or so.

"I did stupid stuff in high school, like most high schoolers. He and the other guy were supposed to ride home with me, but I didn't know and they were normally the joker types. They had to walk a few miles to get to one of their houses. Oh well, they were fine."

This is just making me think of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez cowering in the back of a pickup truck as they were driven round the circuit ahead of yesterday's U.S. Grand Prix.

Suggested by: slicks30r