Here's another similar story from a guy on the vwdiesel performance forum:
His sister had been complaining about noisy brakes, so told her to get it fixed ASAP. About a month later she called and said the car wouldn't budge... he drove out, jacked the front the car and found this:
Sometimes it sucks to be the family "car guy". You feel like you need to watch over everyone's vehicles to ensure they are safe.