Beets and Hondas
Puzzler time.
Okay, this one is weird. I will fully admit that. Here we go.
The President of the California Free Range Beet Growers Association is taken hostage. Due to his position of great prestige, a full blown manhunt is set in motion.
Eventually, police surround an underground parking garage in San Bernardino where they believe His Eminence is being held.
There are four cars inside the garage, one of which belongs to the kidnapper and contains the hostage. The other three, a Nissan, a Ford and a Buick, all belong to innocent shoppers returning from a long afternoon of shopping at the mall.
The kidnapper, knowing that he's surrounded, decides to let the hostage go. But he wants to do so without giving up his identity. So he decides to release his hostage in the stairway of the garage and then run back to his car and blend in with the other innocent motorists getting in and out of their cars. And he's going to drive away.
The hostage is blindfolded this whole time. He has no idea where he is, what kind of a car he was kidnapped in, nothing. He can tell nothing from the sound of the engine.
The kidnapper turns the car off, leaves the keys in the ignition, opens the door and then leads the blindfolded hostage to the stairwell. He takes the hostage to the top of the landing on the stairs and leaves him there.
He runs back down, hops in his car and pretends that he's just another shopper leaving the garage.
The Buick leaves the garage first, the Ford goes out second, and the kidnapper in his Honda Accord leaves the garage next.
As he emerges from the garage, he is arrested on the spot, charged and eventually convicted.
The hostage had called the police and let them know that the kidnapper was driving a Honda, so they were able to apprehend him immediately.
How did he know he was kidnapped in a Honda?
This hint is, he used to be a boy scout.
Good luck.
