[Kreeli]

i did my grocery shopping this afternoon. we live in a townhouse complex, and our parking spot is about 6 doors down from our actual entrance. so when i grocery shop, i park the car in a defunct space that does not block anyone when i do it, right in front of our door, to make for easier unloading.

however, the baby was super cranky and ready for her nap, so i locked the car, brought both the kids inside, put the boy in front of the t.v. (i know, i know), and put the baby to bed. i chatted online for about 20 minutes with someone, and then i cleaned up the kitchen to get ready to put the groceries away. to be clear, the car was parked in the "no parking" zone for about one hour, in total.

so i go outside, and...no car.

i look around and...no car.

my first thought was, ****, my car's been stolen with all of our groceries in it.

then it dawned on me that it might have been towed. so i call the place that has the sign up in the lot and yes, indeed, they have my car. someone in my complex called them and complained about my car sitting there, where it wasn't hurting anybody, and where it was obvious it was just waiting to be unloaded (there were bags of groceries in the back seat), and where it was obvious that the owner has children (there is a baby car seat strapped in the back). it is also obvious which place it "belongs" to since there are only two townhouse units in our row. but no one knocked on my door or anything. ****ing **** heads.

so now i'm waiting for my VERY KIND FRIEND to drive ONE HOUR from his house to pick me and the kids up to drive another 30 minutes out to the impound lot so i can pay SEVENTY FIVE DOLLARS (which, incidentally, is half my grocery money for NEXT week) to get my car back.

my car, which was parked outside MY house, which had only been there ONE HOUR.

the lady at the impound lot said they aren't allowed to say who it was the phoned in the complaint.

good thing, too, or that someone would be missing teeth right and crying mightily right now.

to top it all off, the groceries in the car were what i was going to use to make dinner tonight. so my kids have eaten dry ice cream cones and water for supper.

i ****ing hate people. i hate them. i hate them hate them hate them hate them hate them.

 

[Robert]

Wow, that sucks. It's amazing the lengths to which someone would go, especially a neighbour. You'd think they'd know your car by now and would assume something may be wrong causing you to park there rather than immediately complain you're parking illegally.

Some people really need a slap upside their heads sometimes.

 

[HappyDaisy]

I'm with you Kreeli, people do suck sometimes. I'm so sorry that happened to you. That is such a major bummer.

The same thing sort of happened to my bf once. At our old apartment, he would sometimes park at the foot of the entrance to our stairwell when he needed to just run up and get something real quick from the apartment. Well, one day he did that, and he was upstairs in the apartment for about 20 minutes. When he came back down he had gotten a parking ticket! He was in our OWN apartment complex, not in a public street area, and he was not blocking any drive ways or any other area where cars would need to get through! And the police ticketed him on his own property basically.

Yes, people do quite suck.

 

[GhostUser]

Friendly neighbourhood.

I'm really sorry that happened to you, Kreeli. Some people really need to get hobbies. That was just plain mean of them.

 

[LadyFaile]

my mom's in a townhouse complex, and is on the committee. there's a spot in the middle of nowhere that's convenient to stick a car briefly, like while swapping vehicles in the driveway or whatever. people park there all the time. there's a no parking sign there cause it's a fire route, but they let it slide if the car's not there long and not there like every day.

but on the occassion that someone complains to my mom, or my mom notices the car's been there a long time, she calls the person or knocks on their door and asks them to move it. why? because the committee has a contract with a towing company, they come by several times a day and tow illegally parked cars without warning or without a complaint being called in. so my mom will call up the person and warn them that the truck may be around soon and they should move it. most of the time, they get mad at HER, for them parking illegally, and for her giving them fair warning.

one extreme to the other i guess. does your complex have a committee? maybe they have a similar contract and nobody called in a complaint, could have just been the wrong place at the wrong time

but that really sucks about not being able to feed the kids and all, if someone did complain i hope you find out who it was and give them an earful, that's just downright inconsiderate

 

[Kreeli]

thanks for the kind words everyone.

i just got back from picking the car up. i'm still seething. my kids JUST had their dinners and it's already an hour past their bedtimes. THANKS A ****ING LOT ******* NEIGHBOUR DICK HEAD.

the spot i parked is ONLY a "no parking" zone because it's blocking an actual parking space. there is a car in that parking space, but it hasn't been moved at all since we bought this place, because it is a total wreck. like, undriveable. the entire front end is bashed to smithereens, both the airbags have deployed, and the front windshield and drivers side door are completely buckled.

if that car was functioning and a neighbour drove it every day, i would never leave my car in the space directing in front of our house for more than a few minutes at a time, if that.

there are only two reasons why someone would call the tow truck on me for that. 1) they are strict, by-the-book, never-falter-from-the-letter-of-the-law kind of people who don't care what the circumstances of any situation are, they just want to see "justice" carried out swiftly and succinctly (in which case there is no reasoning with them) or 2) they have decided they don't like me, my family, or my car, and want to get at us any way they can.

everyone in this complex knows who we are and what car we drive. we get comments on it all the time (it's an old beat up nissan two-door) because no one can believe that a family of four and a dog can get around in such a tiny old thing.

i left a note pinned outside our gate that starts off "to the jerk who had my car towed..."

i couldn't think of anything else to do. i want vengence. but i'm not sure who to direct it at. it is only someone who is on strata council who has the power to call the tow truck company, so that narrows it down a bit, but there's no real legal recourse for me in this because i was, technically, in the wrong for parking in a designated "no parking" zone. i'm just pissed because it wasn't harming anyone, wasn't blocking a fire lane and wasn't there for very long at all. and it was a major hassle, expensive, and it is going to make it REALLY ****ING HARD for my kids and i to eat properly for the next two weeks, thanks to all the money i had to pour into the tow truck drivers deep pockets.

 

[Tame]

It's times like this I ****ing hate the internet. There is nothing I would like more right now than to be closer to Kreeli so I could help her out.

 

[Robert]

Tame: agreed.

 

[Kreeli]

thanks, guys. the sentiment is appreciated.

on the one hand, it sucks that my husband works nights because, for one thing, he could have minded the kids while i put the groceries away and parked the car properly, or at the very least, he could have gone and gotten the car and i would have been able to have a "normal" night with my kids.

on the other hand, my husband has a right fiery temper and i'm sure he would have gone hunting for blood tonight, knocking on every door until he found the person who ratted us out, and gotten us into more trouble.

i am scared of what his reaction will be when he gets home tonight. he just gave me the old "we have to be extra careful with money this month" lecture today. we, of course, overspent on the kids at xmas.

sigh.

 

[Skylark]

Would it be less costly to live in another neighborhood, one where people don't intentionally cause each other hassles? I don't know where a perfect neighborhood is, but there are better ones than what it sounds like Kreeli has.

 

[Robert]

Well, I would hardly think the actions of one neighbour costing you 100 bucks or so is cause to go out and sell your home and uproot your family. Yeah, it pisses you off, but people like that usually get theirs at some point.

BTW, Kreeli, what WAS his reaction when he got home?

 

[Kreeli]

heh. there is no way we're moving. this is the first place we've ever "owned" (i put that in quotes because we actually "owe" not "own" this place...lol). if we sold and moved we'd lose thousands of dollars right now.

our neighbourhood isn't perfect by a long shot. we are a mere block away from the "skid row" in our town. but the house is in good condition and it was within our price range. it's also conveniently located within walking distance of all amenities (grocery store, doctors offices, public transit, school) and we can walk for 30 minutes to get to one of the most beautiful urban forests there are in our city.

my husband was really great, despite all my worrying. he didn't overreact at all and told me he thought that although it was annoying, it was "no big deal" in the larger scheme of things. so, that's a relief.

 

[Seadolphin]

Kreeli, I'm sorry that your neighbors are so rude! You'd think they could have knocked on your door & asked nicely (even though your car clearly wasnt in anyone's way). I swear some people just dont have enough to do!!

 

[GhostUser]

Sounds to me that whatever neighbor called has other issues besides the car.

 

[Skylark]

Robert,

What I meant to say, but I suppose I didn't, was that if Kreeli and her family had been considering moving, which they aren't, then this might be the final indicator that this neighborhood wasn't for them.

MRB,

People always have bigger issues. I try to keep that in mind when my manager is giving me undeserved what-for. But hallelujah, that manager is on vacation this week in Hawaii. Say Randy, would you mind finding a 5"7ish round older man with the name Earl and detain him for several... years? His wife, though, you can let her go home. She's a saint and could certainly use the break from her evil husband.

 

[LadyFaile]

Kreeli, so there is a committee? if you know who the president is why not go talk to them about it and explain what happened. if they know who called in the complaint they can maybe tell the person to lay off next time and maybe even refund you the money either out of that person's pocket or the committee's budget. if you explain the extra hardship it'll cost your family they might be sympathetic and help you out.

depends though, the pres of my mom's committee is an older guy who doesn't care much about anything and usually refers everyone to my mom, who is only the treasurer. she helps out people whenever she can though, if she feels they deserve it. since the spot you parked in isn't a fire route and you weren't blocking anyone in, they might be reasonable.

 

[Tame]

And if LF's reasonable suggestion doesn't work...kick them in the junk.

 

[Seadolphin]

Neighbors can be such a pain! I'm really lucky to have good neighbors right now, but I haven't been so lucky in the past.

 

[Tame]

I had some ****ty ones in college. They lived a stree over, and tried to have my car towed because it was parked in front of their house (legal street parking). I actually had to pay the tow truck driver as he had already started to tow my car, and then go back later and get my money from the owner (he knew the dealio and coughed it up.)

From that point on, I was a royal pain in the ass to those bastards. I let the air out of their tires a couple of times, dropped a handful of nails in their driveway, and assorted acts of mischief.

One of their favorite tactics was to block off the street parking in front of their house on football game Saturdays (they would actually use the chairs from their kitchen). Even though it was legal street parking, they still tried to keep others from using it. A year after I graduated, I was really drunk the morning of a football game (surprise), and I enticed a friend of mine to drive me by there in his SUV. I got out and loaded the 4 chairs they had out in the back of his Explorer, and off we went. They were deposited in a student neighborhood on the other side of town. **** with me, I **** with you. Many times over.

 

[BigWaxJesus]

Payback's a *****.