Hey! Don't park in MY spot, you...you...

The BBQ Pit
1

My best friend called me a couple of weeks ago, all riled up and pissed because someone had parked in her parking spot at her apartment. Turns out the weekend building manager had been “casing” the parking lot, checking to see which spots were left vacant for long periods and then renting the spots out for cash on the side during those times when they were left vacant. Probably would have worked with all the people who work the same hours M-F and as long as the other person was out by the time they got home, nobody would be the wiser. Except that my friend does not have a regular 9-5 job—she works retail, so sometimes is gone on weekends but not weekdays or nights sometimes, days others, etc. Anyway, she called me from her car, just fuming because someone was parked there and it cracked me up how angry she was over it. I understand that she pays monthly for that spot and she had a right to be mad but it still cracked me up how fired up about it she was.

Then it happened to me. We just bought a condo and with it came an assigned parking space. We’ve only been there about 10 days or so, but since I walk to work, my car got parked in that spot 10 days ago and hasn’t moved since. Then, day before yesterday, I got home from work about 5 and around 6 decided to run to the ATM, which is not within walking distance. Got back at about 6:20 and there was a big-ass green Cadillac parked in my spot!

Oh, the nerve. I was raging pissed in an instant. I was so indignant and suddenly understood why my friend got so mad when it happened to her. Anyway, I didn’t know what to do since our building manager leaves at 5 and we have an emergency number to call, but I didn’t really think this qualified as an emergency emergency. I was planning on going over to my dad’s that night anyway, so I parked my car blocking the guy in, put on my hazards and ran upstairs to grab a few things to bring to my dad’s. I also wrote a note on a post-it that said, “You are parked in someone else’s spot. Please do not park here again or I will have to have the vehicle towed. Thanks, the owner of spot #63” and stuck it on the windshield. I also wrote down the license # and noted that there was a garage door opener in there that’s just like the one I have, so it was obviously another resident.

I got home about 10 and he was still parked there, so I went and parked on the street and then put a note in the manager’s office explaining the situation and that I had put a note on the window. I got a call from the manager yesterday when he got in at 8:00 and he said he would do his best to get the guy out of there, but that he didn’t know who it belonged to.

Got home from work a bit early yesterday and so I ran into the building manager and he told me that he had gone down and put one of those big orange stickers across the driver’s side window. The owner of the Cadillac came raging in to the manager’s office, all pissed about the sticker until the building manager told him I was within my rights to have him towed immediately when I found his car and that he was lucky his car was still there at all, orange sticker or not. That shut him up and when asked why he parked in my spot, he told the building manager his car is too big for his assigned spot and that he didn’t think anybody owned my spot so it would be ok to park there.

Ok…the guy has a small point that I might possibly understand if this had happened the first day we moved in. Our condo had been vacant for a little while before we moved in, so my parking spot had indeed been sitting open for a few weeks. So if I found him there on day one or two, maybe, MAYBE I would understand this excuse. But then I parked my car there and didn’t move it for TEN days. Did that not give him a clue that maybe somebody was using that spot now?!

Then he went on to ask the building manager if he thought we’d be interested in switching spots with him, so the building manager gave him our home phone and told him that the polite, diplomatic, courteous thing to do would have been to find out whose spot it was first and ask about switching instead of just parking there without permission, but that he could call us and inquire and it would still be a neighborly thing to do. Which I totally agree with.

The building manager told me which spot is this guy’s so I went and looked at it, and while it is only slightly closer to the door than mine (let me just say here, that I have the best parking spot. Closest you can get to the door while still having room to open your doors/trunk and unload things or passengers), it is located in a row of spaces that are interspersed between these big giant cement support columns. His spot is really narrow because of the columns and I can see that he would be afraid of scraping one or both sides of his big-ass Caddy every time he pulls in there. The space is so narrow that I would be uncomfortable parking my little Hyundai in there.

So obviously, I already don’t want to switch spots with him, and then I told Mr. Sunshine that the guy wants to switch and before I even told him about the spot, hubby says, “Hell no! Maybe if he’d asked first, but since he decided to be an ass, we don’t owe him anything.” Again, I totally agree.

Anyway…we did get a message from this guy last night but he must not have realized the building manager told me everything, because all the message says is, “Hi this is Joe Schmoe from unit #XYZ and I’d like to talk to you!” in this peppy, friendly voice. Ha. Fat chance, Joe. Jerk. I haven’t called him back yet because I really don’t want to deal with him wheedling me to switch spots. “But my spot is cloooser…and you have such a littttle car…” I don’t care! I don’t want your spot! I’m sure he’s going to pull telemarketer rebuttal #3 and say, “But who wouldn’t want a closer parking spot?” Can I tell him to put me on his “do not call” list?

At least the building manager told me that since we own the parking space, we are within our rights to have someone towed out of it immediately, with no warning. Which is nice to know, but I don’t know if I’d ever do it without any warning at all.

So, um…this guy’s an asshat. (TM jarbaby) [sub]This is pit-worthy now that I swore, right?.[/sub] I can’t honestly believe that he never saw my car occupying my spot 24 hours a day for 10 days. Or he DID see it but thought I was some OTHER jerk parking there illegally. Either way, still an asshat.

[sub](BTW, I am aware that this post is about as flameful as 7-11 nacho cheese, but I swear, I was really mad! I just don’t have that creative bile. I say stuff like “darn”, if that helps.)[/sub]

2

That fuckwad scumbag dipshit should have his balls ripped out, and sizzled on a frying pan and fed to him with 3 alarm hot sauce and a Zima chaser.

[SUB]just trying to help[/SUB]

3

Give 'em hell, Sunshine! I totally agree that you should stick to your guns and blow this guy off about switching. If his spot is that bad, it’s something he’ll have to take up with management. And I completely understand your anger. There’s nothing worse than getting home and having to keep on driving because there’s nowhere to park–except getting home and having nowhere to park because some assmonkey stole your spot. :mad: :mad:

[semi-related hijack] I lived in an apartment complex in college that had parking along the side of the buildings. Each rental came with a spot–but they weren’t assigned, it was just first come first served. I nearly always got the spot on the end, it was closest to my door, held my big boat of a car fairly easily, and faced up to my sliding door. If it wasn’t open–no biggie, I parked elsewhere. This system seemed to work perfectly well until I’d been there for a year and a half and some snooty chicky moved in upstairs. One day I came home from class (I had walked) and there was a large note stuck beneath my windshield which basically read “This is MY spot, do not park here. If you’re too stupid to read this and park here again I WILL have you towed”
It was unsigned. Humph, I think, that’s pretty fucking bizarre. I crumpled up the note and forgot about it. Next day it’s the same story but this time the note says “Listen Bitch, I tried to be nice about this. I’ve called the police and my landlord to complain. Move this car immediately or you’ll be sorry” Again, it was unsigned so again I ignored it. Later that night snooty chicky knocks on my door and actually started screaming at me. I’ve never been so caught off-guard in my life. She was maybe five feet tall/100 lbs and was cursing like a sailor. She got maybe four sentences in before I very softly told her that I’d lived here for over a year and parking had never been, and never would be, assigned. Furthermore, if she continued to stand in my doorway and scream at me I would have no choice but to call the authorities and file harassment charges. I slammed the door in her face. She moved later that month. FREAK! [/semi-related hijack]

bella

4

Good going bella!

Okay, on a related topic, how do people feel about marking parking spots on the street with a chair or something? After every big snowfall in Chicago people shovel out their cars then put folding chairs or sawhorses or just junk in that spot to save it for later.

  1. The street is the street. It’s public parking and nobody can claim a spot.
  2. Everybody with a car is in the same situation. We all have to get them out so it stands to reason that if each car owner shovels out 1 space there will be as many spaces later on as there were in the first place, and parking will be no more difficult than it is at any other time.
  3. If I come home late at night and the only space available has a chair in it, I’m going to take it. I did my duty already when I moved out my car.
    Am I wrong?
5

They gave him your phone number?? How uncool is that? If they wanted to get involved they could have passed the message along to you. Now he has some of your personal information, and if he gets pissed because you won’t switch…geez.

6

You’re not wrong. If you save your spot , I save mine, and everyone in the city does the same thing, there will be no point in any of us moving our cars, because there’s no place to park.
Another related topic- I live in Queens, NY in a neighborhood with few driveways or garages. Virtually eveyone has to park on the street.I’m overjoyed that I can usually park on my own block. I used to work with a fairly large group of unrelated people who lived in a more suburban part of Queens- every house had a driveway, the property was wide enough to fit *two * cars in front of it. For some reason, these people would feud with a neighbor if the neighbor or a neighbor’s guest parked in front of the co-workers house. What’s up with that?If your neighbor can only fit four cars in his driveway and in front of his house, he has to limit his guests?

Doreen

7

At work I have a reserved parking space, but it does not have a sign with my name on it. A few others have reserved spaces, and they all have signs with their names on them. Life is so unfair. :wink:

8

I was thinking the same thing. That was totally wrong for the manager to give the guy your phone number.

9

When I moved into my last apartment, my roomate and I opted to get a 2 car garage as well (2 cars long, 1 car wide, a bit odd) The garage was conveniently located directly under the apartment, with a short driveway leading to the main road in the complex.

Anyway, after living there for a week or two, I get up early Sunday morning to meet my parents for breakfast, lo and behold, there is a guy parked in front of our garage door, blocking both of us in! We called the management company and they eventually (like an hour or so) located the owner and got the car out of there. The garage had been empty for a while and this person got used to snagging the driveway for a parking spot.

I understand completely your rage over this type of situation. For some odd reason this sort of thing just can make one boil over and want to do terrible things, like SMASH THEIR GODDAMN FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT LITTLE CAR… excuse me, reliving the moment here.

Looking back, it was really no big deal, so I missed one breakfast, at the time it was like the crime of the century.

10

My parents once lived in an apartment complex. Shortly after we’d moved in, my mom found a This-is-my-space note on her window. She asked property management if the space was indeed someone else’s. No, it’s yours, they assured her. The next day, she got a note that said, among other things, “I will have it towed at your expense!” Back to property management. Then this amazon, nearly 6 feet tall (my mom’s 5’) showed up at our door, shrieking and threatening and not letting her get a word in edgewise. Finally, the two of them, plus my dad with a vein standing out on his forehead, went down to property management.

Turned out it was like this: There were seven buildings in the complex: our high rise, another high rise, and five smaller buildings. So they had “a lot of things to keep track of”. Boo hoo. So someone told my mom the space was hers, then someone else told Amazon it was hers! (Amazon’s, I mean.) They couldn’t make the connection between the two complaints? It actually was my mom’s space; Amazon moved in two weeks or so after we did. But no one should have had to go to the office and raise holy hell.

And I really don’t like total strangers screaming at my mom. She wasn’t being rude; it was their fuckup.

11

My family had a similar situation in our old complex. We were told that parking was first-come first-served, so my wife parked in the spot closest to our apartment. Well, the folks next door felt that the spot was THEIRS.

I didn’t mind parking far away and walking, but my wife was pregnant and was also schlepping around our oldest child to boot. After a long battle, the guy had himself declared handicapped and had the spot made into a handicapped spot. I know it was bullsh*t. Among other things, the guy got a new car about a month later. He left his old car in the handicapped spot 24 hours a day and parked his new car in a rented garage which was a considerable distance from his apartment. Farther than many uncovered spots.

Anyway, I like to think that karma caught up with the guy. After he had himself declared handicapped, he started gaining weight. Within 6 months, he’d gained 40 or 50 pounds.

12

Ooh yeah, hate these people. My mom use to be polite but after awhile she just got clinical about it. She has a little book. Do it once and you get a note and your plate # recorded, twice you get towed.

And don’t give up your space if it’s the best. Unless you can get money out of it. Say $200. Or maybe you can rent it to him for $40 or $50 a month and get to use his as well. There’s no harm in bargaining. (Boy I can’t get that word to look right.)

13

The nice thing about renting it out and using his is that you get to keep ownership of the spot. I wish I had thought of this earlier since the same thing happened to me. We have the best spot in the building, lots of room, very easy to back in (per house rules) and on a flat surface, not the ramp. Anyway some idiot went ahead and bought this huge pick-up that made it really hard for him to park. (Hello? Couldn’t you see this coming?) And he became hard up for a better space but I just said “No!” and refused to discuss it. Oh well.

14

So did the weekend apt manager get in trouble for this? Or was this sanctioned by the complex?

15

What Irony. My apartment has no reserved parking. First come, first serve. Visitors park in the street. It is a small complex (22 units). We recently got a memo reminding us of this. Don’t go claiming a spot as your own and harassing those who park in “your” spot.

16

Wow, this has never happened to me, but I completely understand how angry you were! I can imagine myself shaking with rage, singing a couple verses of the 4-letter-word song, towing the fucking car, complaing to management, and doing whatever else might make me feel better.

which is bizarre, because it’s just a parking spot…but goddammit, it’s mine! (It really is, we have assigned parking.)

17

I hadn’t thought about it, but now it does sort of make me mad that the building manager gave the guy our phone number. Oh well. He just called the one time and left the message and I haven’t bothered to call him back.

When we were looking for condos, a lot of places had parking spots for sale, extra. They were an additional $8,000-$15,000 depending on where the spot was. We were completely shocked that a parking space would cost so much! But now considering my territorial feelings, I can sort of see.

I even considered renting the space to him monthly but…I really like my space, durnit! At our old apartment, we had the first-come, first-served deal too. There was one spot right outside my apt that I almost always got, and even though it wasn’t “officially” mine, I always got a little indignant when somebody else parked there. hee. At least now I have the right.

Yeah, they fired him. He was just trying to make a few bucks on the side and it definitely wasn’t approved by the mgmt.