# What are your rights when your car gets blocked in **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 4, 2008, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-rights-when-your-car-gets-blocked-in/466449 "2008-10-04T15:46:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-rights-when-your-car-gets-blocked-in/466449/21 "2008-10-05T23:14:43Z")
> [@Daithi\_Lacha](#): > > In our current apartment complex, something like this happened just before we moved in. A resident blocked in another resident (on purpose; seems like they were feuding), and the block-ee called the police; they cited the block-er with **unlawful imprisonment**! What state is this in? ---
**Author:** ![MikeG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikeg/32/4329_2.png) [@MikeG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeG)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-rights-when-your-car-gets-blocked-in/466449/22 "2008-10-06T02:38:10Z")
> [@ZenBeam](#): > > Only $55? Cheap. No shit! Here in Chicago you don’t get out of impound for less than $200. Got any outstanding tickets? Those have to be paid before they will release your car as well. Can’t pay it? Oh well, your car is going to auction. ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-rights-when-your-car-gets-blocked-in/466449/23 "2008-10-06T06:52:41Z")
Some time back in Tulsa, OK, the brother of a guy I did a lot of survey work with had a situation develop as follows. He comes out of store and there is a guy in a new Chevy Camero that has him blocked by stopping cross wise in front of him while he talks to a friend parked across the lane. He asks him to move and then he and his wife get in their survey truck. Asshat does not move his car, just keep talking to his friend. He beeps his horn. The asshat keeps on talking. He get out and asks him to move again. The asshat starts cussing him out. He asks that the guy not cuss in front of his wife. Both this guy and his brother grew up out in the country – back in the woods… A couple of back and forths and that was nuff. He put in in 4 low and drove right over the front of the guys new car. He was screaming about the fact that it was brand new. He was just telling his friend. He had just came from the dealer , he had it for only 30 minutes. It cost a zillion $$$$ Cops were called. They went to court. There were several witnesses. The asshat was totally screwed, he got all the court cost. For the survey guy, not a thing other than having to show up in court. Bawahahaha We told the story for years… One of the very few times the system actually got it right IMO… ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-rights-when-your-car-gets-blocked-in/466449/24 "2008-10-06T07:18:21Z")
> [@FlyingRat](#): > > II don’t know how pushable a car is when not in neutral gear, though… It’s pushable, given enough power in the pushing vehicle. Many years ago, living in an apartment building, I was out on my balcony when a fire truck arrived to find a vehicle parked illegally in front of the fire hydrant. They simply put the big bumper of the fire truck up against the front of the car, put the truck in low gear, and pushed it, right out of the parking lot entrance, and left it sitting crossways in the street. And they must have called the police, too, because a police car was there almost immediately and wrote a ticket, and a tow truck arrived soon after and towed that car away. Even up on my 6th floor balcony, I could hear pieces of the transmission breaking as the fire truck pushed it along. And the locked tires were leaving a streak of rubber across the parking lot. It took less than a minute for the fire truck to do this; they probably had done it before. And as it turned out, the fire fighters never had to actually use water from that hydrant – it was a small kitchen fire that they put out with several portable extinguishers. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-rights-when-your-car-gets-blocked-in/466449/25 "2008-10-06T09:35:30Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > This has also happened to a friend and she called the cops. They said they couldn’t do anything. The cop wouldn’t even give the obstructing car a ticket. Back in high school or shortly after that, I had a partime job cleaning a bank after hours. I finished one night, and went to see my car blocked in by a new Lincoln. The parking for a bank was part of a large parking lot, and was marked by Reserved Parking signs. There was a game that night, or something and the parking was full. I called, but the police said they couldn’t do anything to the other party. The attendant of the parking lot suggested going to a bar for a beer.:eek: I waited and finally the offending party showed up. I told him that he had blocked my car in and he said, yes. He was the president of the bank and it was reserved parking. All this said with this little smug grin of the self-righteous. The prick. Anyway, I told him that I was the guy who clean his damn bank, which gave him a recoil. Another reason vigilante justice doesn’t always work. Sometimes you think the other person is clearly wrong, but they may just be legitimate. ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-rights-when-your-car-gets-blocked-in/466449/26 "2008-10-06T15:56:28Z")
Especially if the shocks are worn, with about three guys you can get one end of a car bouncing enough to allow it to scoot. Modern cars are lighter, but the bumpers are weaker and harder to get a good grip on. Also, when pushing or pulling a car out of the way, it’s not so much power you need, as traction. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-rights-when-your-car-gets-blocked-in/466449/27 "2008-10-06T16:23:21Z")
> [@GusNSpot](#): > > A couple of back and forths and that was nuff. He put in in 4 low and drove right over the front of the guys new car. > > He was screaming about the fact that it was brand new. He was just telling his friend. He had just came from the dealer , he had it for only 30 minutes. It cost a zillion $$$$ > Cops were called. They went to court. There were several witnesses. The asshat was totally screwed, he got all the court cost. For the survey guy, not a thing other than having to show up in court. Bawahahaha We told the story for years… One of the very few times the system actually got it right IMO… I doubt this. Generally the legal system does not reward those who deliberately take the law into their own hands. Nor do I think that the "system actually got it right " in this case. You have no right as a private citizen to punish another citizen by causing tens of thousands of dolars damage to their property, no matter how big an “asshat” he is/was. ---
**Author:** ![Bongmaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Bongmaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bongmaster)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-rights-when-your-car-gets-blocked-in/466449/28 "2008-10-06T16:25:37Z")
I attended Ohio State for a year back in the late 90’s. Parking there was always an adventure. I came out of class one day to see someone had parked directly behind my car in the driving lane of the lot. Over time I had observed this happening to others almost every day and kind of worried about it each time I parked…well, here it was happening to me. I lucked out about 5 minutes after getting back to the lot and the guy legally parked in front of me pulled out. I took an extra 5 minutes to drain the air out of all 4 of the guys tires. Part of me wishes I had actually punctured them but I was happy enough knowing that person would be scrambling to find a compressor for the afternoon. ---
**Author:** ![VunderBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@VunderBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VunderBob)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-rights-when-your-car-gets-blocked-in/466449/29 "2008-10-06T16:29:21Z")
I was parked in once, at a county fair, by a pickup truck with a manual transmission. My wife was pregnant, and not tolerating the heat. Very lucky for me, the truck had the old style mushroom lock buttons. I found a wire, hooked the cap, and openeds the door. After putting the truck in neutral, a couple of beefy friends helped me push it out of the way, and VWife got the car out of the spot. To make our opinion known to the owner of the truck, we left it parked in the middle of the lane, with the radio turned up high, wipers/heater/headlights on, and the doors locked just as tight as we had found it. The only thing we were missing was leaving a note on the moron’s front seat reading, “Me no like 'um horse, either.” ---
**Author:** ![FatBaldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-rights-when-your-car-gets-blocked-in/466449/30 "2008-10-06T16:36:11Z")
> [@VunderBob](#): > > I was parked in once, at a county fair, by a pickup truck with a manual transmission. My wife was pregnant, and not tolerating the heat. > > Very lucky for me, the truck had the old style mushroom lock buttons. I found a wire, hooked the cap, and openeds the door. After putting the truck in neutral, a couple of beefy friends helped me push it out of the way, and VWife got the car out of the spot. > > To make our opinion known to the owner of the truck, we left it parked in the middle of the lane, with the radio turned up high, wipers/heater/headlights on, and the doors locked just as tight as we had found it. > > The only thing we were missing was leaving a note on the moron’s front seat reading, “Me no like 'um horse, either.” Just out of curiosity, I can understand the headlights, but how did you turn on the radio/wipers/heater without having the keys? ---
**Author:** ![VunderBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@VunderBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VunderBob)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-rights-when-your-car-gets-blocked-in/466449/31 "2008-10-06T16:46:43Z")
> [@FatBaldGuy](#): > > Just out of curiosity, I can understand the headlights, but how did you turn on the radio/wipers/heater without having the keys? Blindly, for the annoyance factor once the truck got started. I hope the battery drained all the way first, and he got a shock while jump starting. ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-rights-when-your-car-gets-blocked-in/466449/32 "2008-10-06T16:48:59Z")
We discussed the question of whether you could sue someone who parks you in and causes you damages here: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=9003050](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=9003050) ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-rights-when-your-car-gets-blocked-in/466449/33 "2008-10-07T04:49:23Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > Eh? If it’s pushable, presumably without opening the car, that would indicate that the parking brake isn’t set either. I would NEVER leave a car in a “rollable” condition, no matter how perfectly level I thought the surface was. I also never park in neutral - you want the gears as a backup in case the parking brake slips. That’s why automatics have “park”. Manuals are parked in gear. On hills, you apply the parking brake with the clutch in and take your foot of the brake, so that the load is on the parking brake and you know it’s engaged, but leave the car in gear (against the hill, though that doesn’t actually matter that much), and wheels curbed, if there’s a curb. Good luck finding a hill in Bangkok! We’re as flat as Kansas. I can verify what Flying Rat said. Cars are always left parked in neutral – except for maybe inside actual parking slots – so they can be moved out of the way. Standard procedure here. ---
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-rights-when-your-car-gets-blocked-in/466449/34 "2008-10-07T13:31:00Z")
> [@ZenBeam](#): > > Only $55? Cheap. **Plus** the towing fee which can be upwards of $75 or so. That brings the total to at least $130. Gettin pricey, and if you can’t get the car out that night you might end up with an extra daily charge on top of those fees. So, now we’re talking $140-$150. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-rights-when-your-car-gets-blocked-in/466449/35 "2008-10-07T18:14:02Z")
> [@Lavender\_Falcon](#): > > Hopefully some place that will cause the owner to wander around for hours, unable to figure out where they’ve left their car, wondering the whole time if it’s been stolen? > > Now that would be poetic justice. 😃 Heh… I sort of caused this to happen once. Parked on-campus at my job while in college. Ran out halfway through the afternoon to get something from my car, and saw that someone had parked me in. Called campus police, said I had a couple of hours before I had to leave but really would need to leave promptly then, could they try to locate the owner of the offending car. They did - and her roommates said she was on-campus at the library. This being pre-cell phones, there was no way to reach her. So _I_ phoned the roommates and asked if they could please try to find spare keys, as I didn’t want to have the car towed but would have to do so. They did. As I left my job later, I saw the car in question, now legally parked, about 30 feet away. Later that evening, _I_ got a call from campus police asking if I happened to have any clue where the car had gotten to. The idiot had come back to where she left her car, found it missing, and reported it to the police as stolen. Oh - and given the library’s location, she had _ **WALKED RIGHT BY** _ her car’s new location. I explained the situation, and as far as I know the owner found her car, went back to her apartment, pissed as hell at the person who scared her. I’m hoping her roommates set her straight. ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-rights-when-your-car-gets-blocked-in/466449/36 "2008-10-07T18:59:16Z")
[QUOTE=pkbites] When told it hasn’t been stolen they’re relieved…until they find out they have a $20 parking ticket and a $35 impound fee. [/QUOTE] > [@ZenBeam](#): > > Only $55? Cheap. > [@Uncommon\_Sense](#): > > **Plus** the towing fee which can be upwards of $75 or so. That brings the total to at least $130. Gettin pricey, and if you can’t get the car out that night you might end up with an extra daily charge on top of those fees. So, now we’re talking $140-$150. Sounds like **pkbites** was referring to a $55 total: ticket plus towing/impound- which I believe is usually one figure representing fees for both towing and impound. Are you suggesting that **pkbites** ’ quoted $20 ticket and $35 impound would have a separately figured towing fee that **pkbites** omitted? Even so, your $130 total would be a relief to me. **pkbites** ’ $55 total makes me wish I lived in the “Majikal Land O’ Cheeze!” The parking ticket for a non-towable offense around here is $40 to $60. I once got a parking ticket for a towable offense but got back to my car before the tow truck came. The towable offense: anti-gridlock restricted parking- major commuter surface street with legal curbside parking until 4:00pm, from 4:00pm to 7:00pm no parking allowed so as to accommodate heavier traffic during rush hour. I had gotten back to my car at 4:02 just as the cop finished writing the ticket, before the tow truck. Although I didn’t get towed, it was a towable offense. The ticket alone was $185.00. The towing fee would have been _at least_ another $100. ---
**Author:** ![Daithi\_Lacha](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daithi_lacha/32/5430_2.png) [@Daithi\_Lacha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daithi_Lacha)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-rights-when-your-car-gets-blocked-in/466449/37 "2008-10-07T22:48:51Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > What state is this in? Florida; Palm Beach County. And I got this straight from the cops’ mouths, too – when we were first apartment hunting, we asked for the record to be pulled for a couple of apartment complexes to see what sort of charges the police had been called out on, and this was on the sheet. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-rights-when-your-car-gets-blocked-in/466449/38 "2008-10-08T07:40:08Z")
I like the way it’s handled here in South Korea. I can’t remember seeing a vehicle without the owner’s or operator’s cell phone number on a placard placed on the front dash so one can read it from outside the vehicle. When, not if, your car is blocked in, all you do is call that number and the owner returns to the car, you move your vehicle, and they put their car back in to block whoever it was _you_ were blocking! ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-rights-when-your-car-gets-blocked-in/466449/39 "2008-10-08T08:33:21Z")
I was once parallel parked along a circle road next to a campus admin building. When I came out I found that new cars had parked such that the car in front of me and behind me were so close as to make it virtually impossible to leave. I finally managed to get out, by inching back and forth about a hundred times. But to do so I had to back up onto the sidewalk. A campus police car gave me a :dubious: but didn’t bother me. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2008, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-rights-when-your-car-gets-blocked-in/466449/40 "2008-10-12T15:05:44Z")
> [@Daithi\_Lacha](#): > > In our current apartment complex, something like this happened just before we moved in. A resident blocked in another resident (on purpose; seems like they were feuding), and the block-ee called the police; they cited the block-er with **unlawful imprisonment**! > [@pkbites](#): > > What state is this in? > [@Daithi\_Lacha](#): > > Florida; Palm Beach County. And I got this straight from the cops’ mouths, too – when we were first apartment hunting, we asked for the record to be pulled for a couple of apartment complexes to see what sort of charges the police had been called out on, and this was on the sheet. Something isn’t right there. The only thing in Florida I could find close to “Unlawful Imprisonment” is False Imprisonment (Florida state Statute 787.02). Subsection 1(a) reads: _The term “false imprisonment” means forcibly, by threat, or secretly confining, abducting, imprisoning, or restraining another person without lawful authority and against her or his will._ This means restraining ones actual body and doesn’t fit the description of simply parking someones car in. And it’s a felony, hardly an appropriate level of punishment for a parking offense. So either there was more to it than just parking a car in, or someone was yanking your chain. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-rights-when-your-car-gets-blocked-in/466449.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-rights-when-your-car-gets-blocked-in/466449.md?page=3)