Illegal Parker Has a Ton of Problems

[catcul]

A homeowner in England finds a stranger's car in her driveway and puts a bag filled with a ton of gravel behind it. Good luck digging it out.

[dalesys]

The bag's got handles! I can just lift it out of the way...

Welcome Hernia City!

[catcul]

The bag's got handles! I can just lift it out of the way...

...with 7 of my closest friends.

[XCashier]

The bag's got handles! I can just lift it out of the way...

...with 7 of my closest friends.

All of whom are elephants.

[Chromatix]

Yeah, with 8 people lifting one tonne between them, each would have to lift 125kg. That's probably a lot more than they each weigh themselves (unless they're morbidly obese and thus incapable of lifting their own weight anyway).

That's going to require mechanical assistance.

[crazylegs]

One thing we're taught when we are trained in manual handling is that the sun of our lifting ability is actually less than our individual ability. This is mostly due to differences in heights and reach.

So, in summary, they're gonna need a shovel and a lot of time.

[protege]

At least the homeowner was nice...and didn't decide to put the gravel *in* the car

[dalesys]

At least the homeowner was nice...and didn't decide to put the gravel *in* the car

... with a little water and cement ...

[BearLeeBadenaugh]

Those bags are a stone cold b*tch to move! pun intended, lol. I deal with them all the time in my business.

Few good stories about people trying to pick one of those up. Most of the time it's just something along the lines of them telling me to go ahead and put it in the bed of their truck, they'll cut the bag to dump, all the while I'm trying to explain that sure, it's "just" a bag, but it does weight north of 1500 lbs(depending on what material). Almost always happens to be someone else's truck, too.

Depending on the vehicle, it might technically be within payload capacity, but I have yet to see a stock F150/1500/etc that handles a full ton in the back without squatting and affecting the driving performance. 250/2500 and up, generally not a problem.

Bring an Avalanche and expect to pick up a ton of stone and you're in for some problems. He's done it twice now, too! Last time we wound up selling him some 55-gallon plastic drums and he spent most of a day transferring from the bag to the drums in his truck(we let him back up to the freestanding loading ramp and put the bag on the edge, so he could load downwards). Delivery charge to his place would have only been $25.

[taxguykarl]

Wouldn't be as much fun but wouldn't a call to agra's local associates have made the point as well?

[Argabarga]

FWIW, maybe once every other year, we get a call like this. An illegal parker has been parked in by a homeowner/tenant/property owner or had their vehicle likewise blocked and wants us to move said car/object so they can get out, and, we can't.

Legally, only the property owner can authorize that, it's a real catch-22, because they usually then call the cops, the cops tell them to call us, and here we are again, and again and again, until the owner finally decides they've proved their point and let them out.

Strictly speaking, you do have to let them out once you've been informed they want out, or it's conceivable to be charged with illegal detainment or whatever flavor that law goes by in your area, but, the tricky thing is getting ahold of said property owner to tell them that when they don't want to be found, it can sometimes take a whole weekend.....

[crazylegs]

As this is in the UK different laws apply. It's an offence to tow a vehicle, from private land, to enforce parking. No equivalent law regarding imprisonment, assuming the driver and/or passengers can exit the vehicle.

[Mr Hero]

Most of the stories you post are about towing from apartment complexes. Do you ever get home owners calling about illegal parking in their driveway regardless of whether or not anyone is blocked?