# Would you mind if someone parked in front of your house? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 5, 2026, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-mind-if-someone-parked-in-front-of-your-house/1031446 "2026-07-05T23:42:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2026, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-mind-if-someone-parked-in-front-of-your-house/1031446/81 "2026-07-08T06:35:32Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > But she also mowed her yard and used the sting trimmer in said bikini. I know what a string bikini is, but I didn’t know they came with string trimmers! ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2026, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-mind-if-someone-parked-in-front-of-your-house/1031446/82 "2026-07-08T10:49:10Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > I know what a string bikini is, but I didn’t know they came with string trimmers! Dear Penthouses Forum… ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2026, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-mind-if-someone-parked-in-front-of-your-house/1031446/83 "2026-07-08T10:55:36Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > Am I reading that correctly – you sometimes have problems backing into a driveway that is 4 cars wide in a cul-de-sac? The garages are set up in an ‘L’ shape (the garages are connected inside at the elbow of the ‘L’). The driveway is not 4 cars wide. But I guess it’s not really a problem, just something to look out for. I guess just recently this has been happening more often because I have a neighbor getting some work done, so there will be a truck parked across the street and one on both sides of my driveway. But it’s a temporary situation. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2026, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-mind-if-someone-parked-in-front-of-your-house/1031446/84 "2026-07-08T11:13:30Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > The garages are set up in an ‘L’ shape (the garages are connected inside at the elbow of the ‘L’). The driveway is not 4 cars wide. But I guess it’s not really a problem, just something to look out for. That makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2026, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-mind-if-someone-parked-in-front-of-your-house/1031446/85 "2026-07-08T18:06:31Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > Out of curiosity, where do the tenants of those apartments park now? I mean, they still need to park their vehicles _somewhere_. It seems like requiring parking permits wouldn’t so much resolve the issue as simply relocate it. I’m not sure. There are plenty of spaces only a block or two away out of the zone, or they may just have gotten rid of the cars they didn’t need. The long term house people are the vocal ones, you don’t hear much from the apartment dwellers. ---
**Author:** ![ricepad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b38774/32.png) [@ricepad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricepad)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2026, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-mind-if-someone-parked-in-front-of-your-house/1031446/86 "2026-07-08T18:11:59Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > Out of curiosity, where do the tenants of those apartments park now? I have a friend who lost his car for several days when he was in college. The campus was surrounded by residential neighborhoods, with SFRs mixed with apartment buildings mixed with frat/sorority houses. It wasn’t unusual to have to park a block or two away sometimes because street parking was oversubscribed. Chuck walked almost everywhere, and one day when he needed to drive some place, he realized he’d forgotten where he parked his car. IIRC, he enlisted the aid of some of his frat brothers to scour the neighborhood until they found it. This was back in the mid-'70s. I think that area now has permit parking to make things a little easier. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2026, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-mind-if-someone-parked-in-front-of-your-house/1031446/87 "2026-07-08T18:22:20Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > Out of curiosity, where do the tenants of those apartments park now? I mean, they still need to park their vehicles _somewhere_. From re-reading that post, if seems as if each tenant gets one or two assigned spaces, but tenants with 3+ cars are out of luck. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2026, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-mind-if-someone-parked-in-front-of-your-house/1031446/88 "2026-07-08T18:27:55Z")
Sounds like a Seinfeld episode. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2026, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-mind-if-someone-parked-in-front-of-your-house/1031446/89 "2026-07-08T18:30:54Z")
Only if he was carrying an air conditioner. Or goldfish. ---
**Author:** ![mjmartin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3d9bf3/32.png) [@mjmartin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mjmartin)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2026, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-mind-if-someone-parked-in-front-of-your-house/1031446/90 "2026-07-08T18:35:17Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > I called the police on the non-emergency number and told them of my concern. You called the police for someone that was parked where he was legally allowed to be parked, doing nothing remotely illegal? Nice. 🙄 ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2026, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-mind-if-someone-parked-in-front-of-your-house/1031446/91 "2026-07-08T18:42:56Z")
> [@mjmartin](#): > > You called the police for someone that was parked where he was legally allowed to be parked, doing nothing remotely illegal? Maybe I wasn’t clear. It was the same car parked in the same place with someone inside night after night, sitting there for hours, in the exact position that someone watching our house would be in. The police had no problem with my call and immediately checked it out. There was a previous occasion elsewhere where I called police for suspicious behaviour (an older kid had boosted another kid up on to my second floor balcony and I thought they might be trying to break in). When it turned out to be a false alarm, I apologized profusely but the cops waved it off, just as they did in this case, saying they’d much rather have false alarms then have potential crimes go unreported. ---
**Author:** ![mjmartin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3d9bf3/32.png) [@mjmartin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mjmartin)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2026, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-mind-if-someone-parked-in-front-of-your-house/1031446/92 "2026-07-08T18:50:11Z")
This isn’t the pit, so I’ll just say that reporting people for doing ABSOLUTELY nothing wrong is certainly a different choice than I would make, given the outcomes of that behavior in many, many high profile cases. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2026, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-mind-if-someone-parked-in-front-of-your-house/1031446/93 "2026-07-08T19:07:02Z")
> [@mjmartin](#): > > reporting people for doing ABSOLUTELY nothing wrong is certainly a different choice than I would make You do realize that what is reasonably regarded as suspicious behaviour is, by definition, not illegal, else it would be called “criminal behaviour”. So suspicious behaviour can indeed be characterized as “doing ABSOLUTELY nothing wrong” if you want to take that sort of _laissez-faire_ position on crime prevention. I do not. > [@mjmartin](#): > > … certainly a different choice than I would make, given the outcomes of that behavior in many, many high profile cases. My suspicions were based strictly on observed behaviour and absolutely nothing else, so no need to drag in nasty innuendos. No one got in trouble over this, though both parties got a lecture about their behaviour. ---
**Author:** ![mjmartin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3d9bf3/32.png) [@mjmartin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mjmartin)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2026, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-mind-if-someone-parked-in-front-of-your-house/1031446/94 "2026-07-08T19:09:13Z")
I’m sure the people that call the cops on kids playing basketball or jogging in the “wrong” neighborhoods tell themselves the same thing. Some people will always be scared of shadows, I guess. No matter how many times it leads to terrible outcomes. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2026, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-mind-if-someone-parked-in-front-of-your-house/1031446/95 "2026-07-08T19:32:54Z")
> [@mjmartin](#): > > I’m sure the people that call the cops on kids playing basketball or jogging in the “wrong” neighborhoods tell themselves the same thing. This interpretation puts my well-intentioned actions in the worst possible context of the American racist zeitgeist. But I don’t live in the US. We don’t have Ahmaud Arbery incidents here. In both cases I was praised by the members of a well-trained police force for being an alert law-abiding citizen. I’m exiting this disturbing conversation before this gets out of hand. ---
**Author:** ![mjmartin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3d9bf3/32.png) [@mjmartin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mjmartin)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2026, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-mind-if-someone-parked-in-front-of-your-house/1031446/96 "2026-07-08T19:36:45Z")
Probably for the best. Hopefully no parking fiends, dog walkers, slightly lost teenagers or other such suspicious scofflaws trouble you today. ---
**Author:** ![peedin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peedin/32/14095_2.png) [@peedin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peedin)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2026, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-mind-if-someone-parked-in-front-of-your-house/1031446/97 "2026-07-08T19:40:05Z")
Wrong thread. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2026, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-mind-if-someone-parked-in-front-of-your-house/1031446/98 "2026-07-08T20:25:41Z")
> [@mjmartin](#): > > Probably for the best. Hopefully no parking fiends, dog walkers, slightly lost teenagers or other such suspicious scofflaws trouble you today. Try responding to what _actually_ happened and not what you made up in your head might happen in a completely different situation with different people in a different location. ---
**Author:** ![mjmartin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3d9bf3/32.png) [@mjmartin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mjmartin)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2026, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-mind-if-someone-parked-in-front-of-your-house/1031446/99 "2026-07-08T20:29:23Z")
I’m sure you think that’s clever. I specifically responded to exactly what he said he did: called the police because someone was committing the gravely dangerous action of parking on a public street and sitting in his car. Maybe you could try responding to what was actually written. Maybe this will help: “You called the police for someone that was parked where he was legally allowed to be parked, doing nothing remotely illegal? Nice.” ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2026, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-mind-if-someone-parked-in-front-of-your-house/1031446/100 "2026-07-08T20:33:48Z")
Exactly. Which has got nothing to do with dog walkers, basketball players, joggers or lost teens. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-mind-if-someone-parked-in-front-of-your-house/1031446.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-mind-if-someone-parked-in-front-of-your-house/1031446.md?page=6)