The first day of school is hectic for students and teachers alike. But for one FHS teacher, the start of the day took an unexpected turn. Blake Hughes, English teacher, went out to look for his car and realized it wasn’t there.

“I walked out to the parking lot of my apartment complex, and I noticed that my car was not where I parked it the night before,” Hughes said. “So I started looking around, hoping that I had misremembered where I parked it, and I saw that it was nowhere to be seen.”

When realizing that his vehicle was nowhere to be found, he called the Omaha police to report his car missing. He also called the high school front office to tell them that he might be late, and he called his insurance company letting them know what had happened. 

“After that, I had to Uber to my sister-in-law’s house where I borrowed her vehicle and drove up to Fremont,” Hughes said. “I was able to get to school about five minutes before my first block started.”

Hughes worked through his first day of school, while pondering what happened to his car and what he would do. After school he was informed that his insurance company arranged a rental for him in the meantime.

Later that night, he received a call from his insurance company that surprised him.

“It wasn’t until Monday night that I got a call from my insurance company letting me know that the police had contacted them and told them that the car had been recovered,” Hughes said, “but that there was a dead body inside.”

With this surprising news, he proceeded to ask questions to get an understanding about this whole situation. The insurance company tried explaining what they knew about the situation. 

“The insurance company said they’re assuming the people that stole my vehicle went to commit some crimes with it that evening. Then apparently there was an individual who was, I believe, shot in the leg,” Hughes said. “That individual then made it to the hospital and then told the police where the vehicle was. The police went back to the vehicle and found another person there who had been shot in the head. It was a good thing I contacted the police letting them know my vehicle was stolen so they could track it and make sure I had no part in this.”

With this information Hughes was relieved that they figured out what happened, even though he was still without his car. His vehicle is now evidence, and he is still in the process of trying to get certain items from his vehicle. 

“It was dumb luck that my great aunt and her husband had been wanting to sell their car. The car had basically been kept up with but it was just sitting in their garage. I ended up buying a 2005 Hyundai Tucson with only 60,000 miles on it,” Hughes said. “My insurance company declared my vehicle was a total loss.”