Revenge is sweet!

An annoyed homeowner in England struck back last week.

For ten years Julie has been regularly inconvenienced by drivers leaving their cars on her property in Crowborough, East Sussex, where she lives opposite the train station in Farningham Road.

Commuters can pay a daily rate of £4.40, a weekly rate of £19, a monthly rate of £69 or an annual rate of £646 to park at the station.

Earlier this month Julie had been due to have gravel laid on her drive – but when workmen arrived to do the job they found a car had been left in the way, preventing the work from being carried out.

So, spotting her chance to retaliate, Julie ordered the workmen to block the errant car in with a ton of gravel.

And, to top it off, she stuck a trowel in the gravel with a note attached saying: “Happy digging, at least it’s not raining.”

The car was blocked in for two days before the owner was able to move it.

There’s more at the link.

I’ve experienced the same thoughtlessness from motorists.  Several decades ago I owned an apartment in Berea, a suburb of Johannesburg in South Africa.  My parking spot in the basement garage had a private entrance, with a ramp leading down to it.  I frequently found partygoers would simply park on my ramp on Friday and Saturday evenings, blocking it, when they found the street parking already filled.  I used to call our building’s towing service and have their vehicles hauled away, usually drawing anger and profanity from the owner(s) when they returned to find their vehicles gone.  One even went so far as to hurl a beer bottle at my car, visible through the barred gates in the garage.  (Fortunately it hit and shattered on the gate, not my car.)  Not one of them ever thought to apologize for blocking my entrance – or bothered to ask for permission to park there, for that matter.

I have a fairly visceral reaction to thoughtless, rude, inconsiderate motorists to this day.

Peter

7 comments

  1. One of my co-workers used to have an "in" with the towing company. He wrote work orders to have them moved to the long-term parking at the local airport.

    Yeah, I know what you are thinking, no way the airport would let a towed car into the lot.

    Some owners did not figure out where their cars went until after receiving over-due bills from the airport with notice that their car was going to auction.

    It is good to have friends.

  2. Removing the air from all four tyres does no damage but causes some lasting inconvenience – or so I've been told by my sons :).

  3. "Removing the air from all four tyres does no damage…"

    Not entirely true. Folding the sidewall to where it creases from the weight, and leaving it for a while, can do structural damage to the carcass. The sidewall is designed to flex, not to be folded like a piece of paper. Lots of variables involved, so few absolute statements can be made, other than if you move the car with flat tires, you are doing some damage. How much damage is the question.

  4. I'm guessing the air escaped when the valve cores were removed (for careful stacking on the drives wiper blade)…. Much less damage there compared to a slit sidewall….

    Of course, after the 2nd tire you don't get any additional benefit since very few motorists have an air compressor, much less two spare tires,

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