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Apparently, there's a business in town here that has grown a bit too large for it's designated parking lot and the customers there frequently have shown up to find all the stalls occupied.
The businesses' solution has apparently been to tell their customers to park in the lot across the street. One minor problem with that. They DO NOT OWN that lot and have no AUTHORITY over it. That lot and the 5 story building on it belong to a totally different entity than the one that owns their side of the street. Apparently, this has been going on for some time unnoticed. It wasn't a problem I was aware of because the peak busy times for this place usually are after 5pm, long after the office has emptied out for the day. Meaning there was nobody around said office to notice that a whole bunch of people were claim-jumping their property at night.
You don't need spider sense to see where this is going, heck, horse sense would probably be sufficient to predict that one day, this cheerful arrangement would end in Shakespearean tragedy.
One of the customers for said business parked in the office lot.... before 5pm, were noticed, and ordered towed out.
No points for guessing that I simply could not, despite my best efforts, make it clear to said person that they COULD NOT park on SOMEONE ELSE'S PRIVATE PROPERTY without their permission, even if someone else, ESPECIALLY SOMEONE WHO WASN'T THE PROPERTY OWNER said they could.
"They told me I could park there!" She moaned
"That isn't their property, they don't have the authority to do that, it's the same as if I told someone else it was okay to park in your driveway, I can't do that" I replied
And around and around and around we went, she was SURE the problem was that I just didn't understand that SHE HAD PERMISSION!
And then, when I thought she finally got it and hung up, then, her DAD called me
(Sidenote, when the aliens I've secretly been contacting on my dental fillings finally arrive here and sublimate the world governments, putting me in charge, the first order of business I'm going to get out of the way is NO MORE DESIGNATED HITTER in baseball! The second issue? ANyone who's response to getting fined is to sic their Mom or Dad on me will have said fine summarily TRIPLED! But I digress.)
And I couldn't get it through to HIM either.
"They told her she could park there!" he moaned
"They have no authority to do that, they don't own that lot, it's the same as if I gave permission for people to park at your house, I can't do that" I replied
And around and around we went, right round, like a record baby, right round round round.........
He eventually hung up too, declaring his intention to call the owners of said office building up and have it out with them over just who they thought they were, towing his widdle angelkins off of THEIR property when she HAD PERMSSION! Oh, and for the icing on the cake, he suggested that maybe, just maybe, his precious WAS indeed told not to park on that side, but might have "misheard" or "didn't understand" the instructions because she has a "audio disability" (his words, not mine). He seemed rather crushed when I informed him that was irrelevant, since the lot is signed "Private" anyway. (Further sidenote, neither on the phone, or when she came in to pick up the car, did this young lady seem to have any trouble hearing or understanding me, even in a small office full of ringing phones, yapping technicians and rapidly-plummeting patience levels behind the counter).
It is important to note, that at no time did either of these people raise their voices, cuss, interrupt or get cross with me. They were actually very polite. THey just couldn't understand that people who don't own a given piece of property are, well, not in control of said property. That's, the whole IDEA of private property.... one of the big tenants that this whole durn country was founded on........
*sigh* Where did natural selection go wrong? I'm weeping for my hypothetical kids again, and it's only Tuesday..... that's a depressing new record.
The businesses' solution has apparently been to tell their customers to park in the lot across the street. One minor problem with that. They DO NOT OWN that lot and have no AUTHORITY over it. That lot and the 5 story building on it belong to a totally different entity than the one that owns their side of the street. Apparently, this has been going on for some time unnoticed. It wasn't a problem I was aware of because the peak busy times for this place usually are after 5pm, long after the office has emptied out for the day. Meaning there was nobody around said office to notice that a whole bunch of people were claim-jumping their property at night.
You don't need spider sense to see where this is going, heck, horse sense would probably be sufficient to predict that one day, this cheerful arrangement would end in Shakespearean tragedy.
One of the customers for said business parked in the office lot.... before 5pm, were noticed, and ordered towed out.
No points for guessing that I simply could not, despite my best efforts, make it clear to said person that they COULD NOT park on SOMEONE ELSE'S PRIVATE PROPERTY without their permission, even if someone else, ESPECIALLY SOMEONE WHO WASN'T THE PROPERTY OWNER said they could.
"They told me I could park there!" She moaned
"That isn't their property, they don't have the authority to do that, it's the same as if I told someone else it was okay to park in your driveway, I can't do that" I replied
And around and around and around we went, she was SURE the problem was that I just didn't understand that SHE HAD PERMISSION!
And then, when I thought she finally got it and hung up, then, her DAD called me
(Sidenote, when the aliens I've secretly been contacting on my dental fillings finally arrive here and sublimate the world governments, putting me in charge, the first order of business I'm going to get out of the way is NO MORE DESIGNATED HITTER in baseball! The second issue? ANyone who's response to getting fined is to sic their Mom or Dad on me will have said fine summarily TRIPLED! But I digress.)
And I couldn't get it through to HIM either.
"They told her she could park there!" he moaned
"They have no authority to do that, they don't own that lot, it's the same as if I gave permission for people to park at your house, I can't do that" I replied
And around and around we went, right round, like a record baby, right round round round.........
He eventually hung up too, declaring his intention to call the owners of said office building up and have it out with them over just who they thought they were, towing his widdle angelkins off of THEIR property when she HAD PERMSSION! Oh, and for the icing on the cake, he suggested that maybe, just maybe, his precious WAS indeed told not to park on that side, but might have "misheard" or "didn't understand" the instructions because she has a "audio disability" (his words, not mine). He seemed rather crushed when I informed him that was irrelevant, since the lot is signed "Private" anyway. (Further sidenote, neither on the phone, or when she came in to pick up the car, did this young lady seem to have any trouble hearing or understanding me, even in a small office full of ringing phones, yapping technicians and rapidly-plummeting patience levels behind the counter).
It is important to note, that at no time did either of these people raise their voices, cuss, interrupt or get cross with me. They were actually very polite. THey just couldn't understand that people who don't own a given piece of property are, well, not in control of said property. That's, the whole IDEA of private property.... one of the big tenants that this whole durn country was founded on........
*sigh* Where did natural selection go wrong? I'm weeping for my hypothetical kids again, and it's only Tuesday..... that's a depressing new record.
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