Parking lots are a necessary evil in places that don’t provide decent public transit (aka everywhere in the U.S.) and it’s well known that hell is other people. Put those two together and you’ve got an arena for jackassery. Normally, things go OK. You pull into a spot, throw it in park and move on with your day. Other times, you’re dealing with entitlement, bad actors, clueless drivers, sexual harassment, or worse.
Some parking lots are worse than others. Trader Joe’s grocery store is notorious for being a nightmarish parking situation. And anyone who has had to contend with Sunday traffic knowns a church parking lot contains far less forgiveness than the building it services. But a bad driver or one that’s quick to anger can make any parking lot a battle ground. I want to hear your stories! What’s the worst interaction you ever had in a parking lot?
I just wanted my Chicken Parm…
A recent run-in with a jerk made me think of this question of the day, and it was actually a bit nerve-wracking. A portly man in a Porsche Macan S pulled in ahead of me into a narrow, small parking lot and, I thought, was pulling into a spot near the door. Apparently he was attempting to back up into a spot (first sign of entitlement; expecting everyone to wait on you as you navigate backing into a parking spot. Stop doing this! Especially in tiny lots) he took so long I didn’t see his reverse lights since I’d already pulled into the first spot I saw… the one he was aiming for all the way up the lot.
Instead of being a normal person and parking in any of the other multiple freely available spots in this tiny parking lot, he blocked my car in by parking across the lot and started screaming at me to move my car so he could park in this spot. He then followed me into the carry-out spot, leaving his car angled so I couldn’t get out and no one else could enter the lot. I picked up my food, and followed me out, the entire time yelling about how it was his spot. At this point, I had spent maybe a minute and a half in his precious spot and could leave and give it to him, but he kept blocking me in and standing at my car door as if waiting for a… I don’t know exactly? Apology? Recognition of his superiority in the Italian sandwich parking lot?
Now, I am a woman alone and I probably should have told someone at the restaurant to call the cops, but Detroit cops aren’t exactly known for their punctuality, or caring very much about small altercations like these in general. Plus we’ve had a lot of rich, entitled people move into Detroit recently and I’m not one to have others fight my battles anyway. So instead I let him know he was acting like a violent creep and I was more than happy to trash my husband’s utter piece-of-crap Ford Escape on his Macan to get away from a potentially violent situation. In a no-fault state like Michigan, that would certainly hurt him more than me. It took me calling 911 to get this guy to leave me alone. There’s nothing quite like giving a description of a perp to an operator while he’s standing right there (receding hair line, jowls, little piggy eyes, at least 300 pounds…) And did I mention he did all of this in doctor’s scrubs! As I was leaving, I may have told him to get a real Porsche if he wanted to throw his considerable weight around.
Anyway, hopefully he learned his lesson; don’t mess with foul-mouthed city girls. What about you? What’s your worst parking lot experience?
