Where I pit myself for Parking Lot Rage

The BBQ Pit
1

On Saturday I was in Fairfax VA to see Rick Springfield at the Fairfax County Fair. I had gone with my best friend. We arrived about an hour and a hald before Rick was supposed to start.

We drove around the parking area for 25 minutes and could not find a space. Suddenly I see a family of 5 walking towards our car. I ask them if we can have their space. They agree and I get out of the car and walk with them while my friend circles back around.

When I am at their space talking to them as they load up their car this other driver stops to wait for them to pull out of the space. This driver does not know that my friend wanted the space. The person who was in the space waits until my friend is 5 cars back in like before pulling out.

Now that the space is empty other than me standing in it the car that wanted to space tries to pull in. It can not pull in because I am standing there. The passenger in the car shouts at me to move and I explain that the person who was parked her said we could have the space and I need him to move his car so my friend can pull in.

The passenger does not like that and instructs his wife who was driving to pull into the space. She starts to and ligtly touches my leg with the car and stops. At this point her husband tells me to move. Again I (foolishly) stand my ground.

This is when he exits the car and starts yelling at me. He startes calling me language I am not going to repeat and because I believe I am in the right I tell him calmly and in a normal speaking voice to call the cops if he believes he should have the space because I am not moving.

He continues to get louder and threatens to attack me. I still stand where I was with his wife’s bumper touching my leg. I’m calmly instructing him to call the cops who are there so they can decide if I am in the wrong.

A few minutes later the police come and ask both of us for our ID’s. I explaing that mine is in my wallet which is in my pocket and I have to take it out. The officersays to do it slowly and I do. A second officer comes over and moves the man to another area of the garage. The office talking to me asks me to move to the raling and I do. It is at this time that the driver of the car takes the space.

I’ve realized at this point that I’ve lost the space unless they make her pull out and I doubt that will happen.

While I explain to the officer talking to me what happened I hear the other officer talking to the man telling him her was being disordaly and asking him if he was drinking because he smelled alcohol on his breath. The man admitted to drinking and the officer told him that I could cite you for being drunk and disordly and if they saw him with any beer at the fair he would be arrested for public intoxication.

The officer talking to me agreed that if the person who was in the space was still there we should have had it but as soon as they leave it is open for everyone and I did a foolish thing because I could have been assulted or shot if he had a weapon. I agreed that I did not make the best choices but I was frustrated by the parking situation. He did ask me if I had walked into the bumper or if the car was driven into me because he saw the car touching me when he came over.

I told him she drive the car slowly into me and stopped when the bumper tapped my leg. He asked me if I wanted to file an assult charge for that against both of them because the driver’s husband told her to do it and I declined because I didn’t want to miss the concert and going down to Fairfax for a court case would be a waste of my time.

So I am pitting myself for being an asshold and doing a foolish dangerous thing which nothing good could have come out of it. I could have been injured or worse

2

Well, you were completely in the right here. Granted, standing in the spot wasnt the most intelligent move on your behalf ( :slight_smile: ), but you were right.

I would have filed assault charges for their little stunt, though. That’ll learn 'em.

3

What?!?!?! No, he wasn’t in the right. Parking spaces are first come, first served. You can’t hold a space. It’s rude. You circle around like everyone else does and wait for something to come up. So, not only was he not in the right, he was stupid for letting the situation escalate. Yeah, he could have pressed charges, but just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

4

RICK SPRINGFIELD?!? wtf…

Agreed you should have filed charges. Otherwise that drunken asshole will think he can get away with it again. Lucky him it wasn’t me standing in that parking space, I would’ve pissed on his radiator.

5

You were in the right, and I would have filed charges on them as well. There is never an excuse for vehicular contact.

Next time, try telling the waiting cars that the people who are at their car are not leaving yet.

Sam

6

The OP was not in the right. He chose to do the equivalent of queue-jumping and people (rightly) got angry at him. Now, the way the other guy chose to express his anger was wrong, but that doesn’t make the OP right.

Parking spots are first-come, first-served. Sometimes you find a spot first go round, other times you go round and round and round for what seems like a lifetime. The OP tried to work around this unwritten rule and learnt that queue-jumping doesn’t work.
Max.

7

That’s what I was thinking. All the way through I’m reading it, I think “Okay, sure, yes. Hmm, that was a bit risky. Hmm, okay, cool, the cops… wait a second, why isn’t he defending his desire to see Rick freakin’ Springfield, for pity’s sake?”

8

The OP was not in the right. Neither was the couple.

There isn’t always a good guy.

9

If you think standing in a parking space means you’re legitimately “saving” it for someone, you’re very much in the wrong. I may not be able to make you move (and I’m not going to hit you with my car), but there’s no way in hell I’m going to move out of the way and help you take a space you aren’t entitled to. I’ll happily wait you out, most likely laying on the horn while I do it.

10

Exactly. People who hold spaces like that piss me off. To echo what other posters have said: you cannot reserve parking spaces. First come, first served and all that. I don’t know why idiots think standing in a space entitles them to it.

11

Throws in dollar

The original guy in the parking spot doesn’t have any sort of entitlement or ownership rights to the spot, let alone the power to determine who is entitled to it. Sheesh. His job is to merely move his car…the etiquette of who gets it comes down to the people waiting in line.

Kudos to admitting the assholery. But it isn’t for making a scene…it’s for trying to reserve the spot by standing it.

As to the other driver, yes…major asshole by trying to nudge someone out of the way. Should have just waited patiently. If the cops came on the scene THEN with a line of five cars backed up because someone was standing in a parking spot, guessing the story would have been different.

Also, not that I’m defending the guy, having beer on one’s breath doesn’t make one a drunken asshole. If the cop charged him with drunk and disorderly, he could have demanded a breathalyzer. Of course…he COULD have been drunk. In which case he IS more of an asshole than originally.

Reminds me of the various “tailgating” threads that have popped up. Assholery all around.

12

Throws in dollar

The original guy in the parking spot doesn’t have any sort of entitlement or ownership rights to the spot, let alone the power to determine who is entitled to it. Sheesh. His job is to merely move his car…the etiquette of who gets it comes down to the people waiting in line.

Kudos to admitting the assholery. But it isn’t for making a scene…it’s for trying to reserve the spot by standing it.

As to the other driver, yes…major asshole by trying to nudge someone out of the way. Should have just waited patiently. If the cops came on the scene THEN with a line of five cars backed up because someone was standing in a parking spot, guessing the story would have been different.

Also, not that I’m defending the guy, having beer on one’s breath doesn’t make one a drunken asshole. If the cop charged him with drunk and disorderly, he could have demanded a breathalyzer. Of course…he COULD have been drunk. In which case he IS more of an asshole than originally.

Reminds me of the various “tailgating” threads that have popped up. Assholery all around.

Walks away with 98 cents in change

13

Further assholery for double (now triple) posting. Apologies all around.

14

“Do you want to press charges?”

“I dunno, I’ll consider it while she leaves the space”

Woulda seemed pretty simple to me.

15

I’m not sure where in the Gigantic Book of Unwritten Rules ™ that is says you need to be in a car to hold a parking space. I’ve done it more times than I can count. You’re a person, standing in a space that’s open to anyone to be in, the drunken sot and his spineless wife HIT YOU WITH THEIR CAR! Not only would I have pressed charges, but I’d have fallen down on the ground writhing and cursing like an NBA forward staring at his final foul. Honestly, the only way to get anything in life is to take control of the situation, which it sounds very much like the OP did (in vain though it was). Too bad you didn’t get the spot, but you stood your ground, good on you.

16

Exactly what I was thinking. Can someone explain this?

17

After having read this thread before work, almost committed my own form of assholery on the morning drive.

We don’t have a place outside our apartment where we can leave mail for pick-up, which is fine, as there’s a blue postal drop box a few blocks away on the way to work. While I could take the time to parallel park on the street across from the box, I prefer to pull into the shared parking lot of a dry cleaners/deli/liquor store that is just as close…much easier to get in and out.

Thing is, there is, quite clearly displayed, a “For Customers Only” sign. And I’m clearly not a customer (unless you count me as a customer of the Postal Service, which is right next to the shared building of these businesses).

To be honest…I don’t really care. I figure, I’m in and out of my car in literally less than a minute (if I cared to make it a slow jog, could easily do it in 20 seconds). There are about 12 parking spots there…and there has never been more than three or four occupied in the morning. I stop there about three times a week (I have a very active Netflix subscription), so can speak to this confidently. And there has never been the potenital for trouble…until today.

So, I get out of my car, and am about thirty feet away from it (and about forty feet from the mailbox) when I hear a voice yell at me from behind. I turn around, and a gentleman (who I believe was affiliated with the dry cleaners) was shouting “You can’t park there!” All I ended up saying was “I’m just dropping off something in the mailbox,” and finished my business.

But part of me was tempted…TEMPTED…especially after reading the above thread less than half an hour before…to say something along the lines of “Call the cops” or “So have me towed.” I figure, I’d be out of there in about 40 seconds and there was no way a cop or truck would show up by then. But what if the guy had blocked me in by standing behind me when I returned to my car? And why ruin what, up to that point, had been an easy and natural process?

Damn you, Assholery…you are a cunning temptress…

18

You’re an asshole if you sit in a space to save it and then don’t move when someone wants to park there. Just as much as if you’re an asshole if you stand in line and let a whole bunch of your friends cut in.

The driver shouldn’t have hit him with the car, legally speaking, but morally speaking, I wouldn’t have any pity for the OP if the driver had broken his legs.

He’s a dick and deserved more than he got.

19

Well, here’s one bloggers stories on assholes who hold parking spaces by standing in them

I mean, take this scenario, which I’ve seen at the mall several times: Car A is in one parking aisle, Car B in another. A parking space opens up ahead, in the aisle that Car A is in. A passenger from Car B jump out of the car and reserves the spot for his friend, who is not even in the same aisle as the parking space. To me, clearly Car A deserves the spot. He’s in the aisle and the space ahead is his to park in. Yet assholes try pulling this stunt all the time.

It just seems common sense to me. Now if they could get rid of that stupid Chicago (and other cities) tradition where they reserve parking spaces with chairs during the winter.

20

Having lived several winters in Chicago, I can understand this under certain circumstances. Reserving a spot you’ve spent the better part of an hour shoveling out, because you know someone is on their way over…you clear it, you claim it. But that should only be good for one usage of said spot…once you clean a spot, and move your car in and then out…it’s up for grabs. I’ve heard tales of people who try to lay permanent claim to a spot for several months because of 30 minutes spent cleaning it. Have heard anecdotal tales of folks retailiating on vehciles who usurp said spot