Tony Gonzalez

tgonzalez@tennessean.com

Langhorne Slim couldn't have thought up a story as good as what happened to him last week in Nashville.

The singer-songwriter had his car stolen — then found in the most fitting but unlikely way. And he learned a few lessons along the way about friends, fans, neighbors, the police and the far reach that a man in need can find these days — if not through song, then through social media.

But will he, in fact, write a song about what went down?

"I need a minute to catch my breath," said Slim, 33, whose given name is Sean Scolnick. "This would write itself. It's like my duty to do something."

The trouble began last Thursday, when the longtime wandering musician who now lives in East Nashville went to lunch.

After a leisurely meal at Mas Tacos, Slim emerged to find his beloved 1977 Mercury Comet missing.

He likes it so much because he hasn't seen another one around. And because he bought it last year with the help of Mike Beyer, his best friend.

It looks great. Runs OK. Never did make it as a popular vintage car, but Slim thought it was worth the $6,000 he paid for it. He figured it made it the kind of car that never seems worth stealing.

"It turns heads," he said. "It's worth a lot to me, but you aren't going to retire off the sale of it."

Opportunity

It looked good enough to the teenagers suspected of stealing it. It wasn't much of a challenge.

Slim admits he left the keys in the ignition — the kind of decision that leaves Nashville police exasperated.

"Don't leave your keys in the car!" said Metro police spokeswoman Kris Mumford, a refrain she has grown tired of repeating. Despite police urging, every year almost half of all stolen vehicles had keys left inside or otherwise available.

Slim takes responsibility. But he said there's something bigger at play than the security of his car.

"I'm more open to the benefits that I feel living in an open, trusting way than being worried about (stuff) all the time," Slim said. "I'm open to the finger being wagged. I'm partially responsible for it, no doubt. … But in ways, it's brought more beauty into my life than it has negativity or theft."

Slim said that same openness — and the belief that his neighbors would help him hold to his ideal — was a factor in what happened next.

An assist from social media

After filing a police report and beginning the three-mile walk home, he took to Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to post a photo of the Comet and ask locals to watch for it.

The first sightings came Saturday morning. By then, Slim had traveled (by tour van) to perform in Vancouver, Canada.

But his friend Beyer, still back home, was on the case. He had a hunch the theft had been a crime of opportunity. Something told him he might come across the car.

He spotted it coming toward him on Douglas Avenue on Saturday afternoon. Beyer made a U-turn, called the cops and trailed the car, packed with four teens, onto Ellington Parkway, headed north and away from downtown Nashville.

It was a low-speed pursuit.

"Look," Beyer said, "this is not a fast car."

Moments later, the teens, aware they were being tailed, pulled to the shoulder with Beyer close behind. Then, they slunk off into the woods — no hurry — as police urged Beyer to stay in his car.

Like Slim, one of his first thoughts was to take a photo and post it online. One selfie shows Beyer shielding his eyes, with the car and a police cruiser in the background.

"No joke," he wrote in a caption.

Slim got the car back from police Wednesday after they dusted it for fingerprints. But he said he's not too worried about finding the thieves. "Let's just call it even," he said.

The story seems to have created the kind of dramatic friction songwriters dream about.

"I don't think that you need to be miserable or have terrible things happen to write songs, though it seems to be where the songs come from," Slim said.

He had picked up his guitar after the theft, already mulling the possibilities.

"Now," he said, "the whole thing is beautiful."

Reach Tony Gonzalez at 615-259-8089 and on Twitter @tgonzalez..