It is beyond me how DUMB this person can be to park like that. Obviously they don't care what happens to their car. I tell you what I would have done. I have a valve stem remover. I would have taken out ALL FOUR stems and tossed them in the sewer. If it was dark, I'd also bend the windshield wipers upward. That's all for now.
Next time I need to kill someone I'll make sure it is on private property! As far as the fool in the Honda goes, you could have got a hammer, smashed in the right rear corner to give room to back out. No problem! <edit> Because the car is on private property the owner of the Honda wont be able to have charges bought against you!! <end edit>
I'm with you. I do try to "live and let live", but this would have ticked me off enough that I would have had the police involved.
The private property parking portion of this thread makes me think of a classic Ann Arbor parking story. Ann Arbor is the home of the University of Michigan. The university dominates the city, and parking is always a problem. Parking disputes are common. One property owner had recurring problems with a person illegally parking on his front lawn. The property owner would find the same car parked on his lawn over and over. Notes left for the driver went unheeded. Likewise the property owner had no luck with the police. Not wanting to damage the illegally parked car, the property owner cleverly built a wall around the parked car, making for an interesting problem for the owner of the car: how to remove the parked car without committing criminal trespass and property destruction. A tow truck would have been simpler, but this method was more fun. Tom
Times like this I wish there was a license plate reverse lookup. It would be nice to send that picture to the owner of the car, its workplace, and the car's neighbors and suggest they take a driving class or two to learn how to park, if not drive. Public embarassment can go a long way in correcting bad behavior!
My "Parking Job of the Year Award" would have gone to a young man on Beaver Island. This was a few years ago. One Sunday morning we took the dingy in from our boat to have breakfast. Walking across the street to the restaurant we noticed the aftermath of the previous night's partying: a largish 4wd truck parked on top of a smaller car. Seeing the sheriff later in the day, I mentioned the unusual parking job. The sheriff commented: "Yea, that's an odd parking job, but I really can't ticket him since it's his car." The kid had parked his truck on top of his own car. It must have been some party. Tom
Other than towing, public embarrassment is really the only acceptable solution. I'm astonished how many endorsements of vandalism are appearing here.
My concern with doing any damage to the ill-parked vehicle is the possibility (slight, but real) that the poor parker noted the Prius license plate. When considered in that way, the poor parker might have wanted vandalism in order to be able to press charges against the Prius. As far as posting the picture, no one needs to know exactly where the parking offense occured. Send it to PeopleOfWalMart.com.
I'm sure I would have at least considered the possibility, but hopefully thought better of it. I would call a tow truck if I were blocked in.
having the car towed (usually the manager of the store will do it if needed) is much better than vandalism. Think about it... it's not illegal, and the person coming out to their car gets several panic-stricken minutes (if not more) of "Oh crap, where's my car?!?!?" Then they get to pay money to get their car back.
Hmm... some white shoe polish on the rear (and front?) window stating "I can't park worth $#!^" would qualify as public humiliation... It's harmless and washable. Deflating tires might work too... but may cost more if they call AAA or whatnot.
I love the leaves covering PriusRos' license plate. Martha Stewart couldn't have Photoshopped it better herself.
Okay...this one beats my guy. But wait, it doesn't exactly count as a parking job because she didn't actually park there !
Ooh, why would I want to insult the people of Walmart?? Yeah, I'm too chicken to actually resort to vandalizing the car. It actually never entered my mind until afterwards. Air out of the tires would have been reasonable, though.
Yeah, in retrospect, I should have gone back to TJ's - even though I wouldn't know for sure that it was one of their customers since there were many stores sharing that lot -- and they could have called whoever owns the lot, or the police, or whoever. I suspect that by the time someone came, however, the owner would have come out and taken off.
I want to add, I wasn't advocating vandalism. The owner of the car must think there is no right rear corner on the car, I was suggesting adjusting the car to suit their impression of it. If you let just the left side tyres down it would have given you a little more room.