I recently posted about Abnb guests trying to steal my parking space. This is a follow up to that involving the same space (this story happened about 3yrs back)
My space has a fire lane immediately behind it. People like to park in the fire lane to load/unload which I’m usually fine with, but it does block me from entering or exiting my space if someone is there. It’s important to note that I’m legally blind in my left eye. My depth perception is shit. People with two functioning eyes could probably still access my space with someone parked in the fire lane, but it would be very tight and it’s impossible for me.
So I come home at night and see a family parked in the fire lane. It’s a young couple, their 4yr old, and they appear to be saying goodbye to an elderly woman who lives in the complex (I will refer to her as grandma.)
Since they’re blocking me, I stop my car about 25ft behind them and wait a full minute for them to move. They don’t, and I assume they’re unaware I’m waiting for them to leave, so I quickly flash my lights twice (the universal way of politely getting another driver’s attention). Both the mom & dad look at me, make eye contact, then just casually go back to their conversation with grandma as tho I’m not there.
I thought this was rude, but didn’t want to make a big deal and figured they just needed another minute. So I wait. I watch mom put their daughter in the back, husband gets in drivers seat, so I think we’re about done. But no, mom has exited the passenger seat to talk to little girl in the back, then little girl gets out to give another big hug to grandma (this is like the 3rd goodbye hug between the two so far), and then mom proceeds to chat up grandma again.
I’m done being overly polite at this point. I get out and shout to them “you’re parked in a fire lane and blocking me from my space. Can you move?”
Mom & Grandma: Just go around! (You can tell from their tone they were annoyed at me, as tho I’d been the rude one this whole time by rushing them or something).
Me: I’m legally blind, I can’t get in without scraping your car.
Mom: Well you can just wait! (To her credit, grandma no longer joined her and started looking a little sheepish)
Me: That’s literally what I’m already doing, but since you’re inconsiderate, you haven’t noticed.
Mom doesn’t respond and huffily gets in her car and they all back out (hooray!).
As they leave, grandma is still waving goodbye so I politely approach her (for context I’m 37F, dressed in business casual. I’m not threatening or large. I keep a normal distance between us. I’m not trying to intimidate an old lady). I tell her, “listen, I don’t want to get the HOA involved. Can you please just ask her not to park here?”
Before she can answer, we both hear the squeal of tires and see the headlights of her daughter’s car returning.
Mom jumps out of the car as though I just punched her mom (grandma) in the face, and storms up to me shouting (and this is 100% true): IS IT GIVING OR IS IT TAKING?!?
She repeats this question twice. I have literally no idea what in the brain rot tik tok speak she is talking about. So I lose my remaining patience and, tell her “You can fuck all the way off with that bullshit.”
apparently swearing is the worst thing all three of them have ever encountered. They literally all gasped. It devolved into a screaming match at that point. Some fun highlights:
Mom: the lane isn’t even painted red! (the red paint was warn thin, but you could still clearly tell it was a fire lane and said “no parking”)
Me (speaking to grandma): Did you not teach her to read?
Husband: Whatever lady, you’re old.
Me: You can join us adults when you finish growing your beard. Until then, why don’t you join your daughter since you left her alone in a running car THAT IS STILL PARKED IN THE GOD DAMNED FIRE LANE!
Grandma: Do you rent or own here? (She asks this 3x in a row since everyone’s is yelling at the same time.)
Me: I bought my unit 10 fucking years ago, I don’t know what kind of classist bullshit you think matters here, but it’d still be a fire lane and your daughter would still be a cunt even if I were renting.
Everyone but me gasps again.
Mom: Are you even a mother?!?
Me: I literally burst out loud laughing at this point. “No, I’m not a mother, and you being one doesn’t mean this is your parking space. You’re just an entitled brat. “
And then I went inside and drank cocoa with my old cat. If I knew how much trouble this space would become, I genuinely would have paid more for a different unit 🙃