The Tow Files: The Hunt for Red Oc-TOW-ber

[earl colby pottinger]

Unless

Nope, a tow is a tow, the only difference is the violation is down as "FIRE LANE" and not "NO PERMIT FOR LOT"

Now, fire lanes are considered immune to the 15 minute wait, so he just made it more likely he'd get towed, but it wasn't going to cost him more.

Unless there is a fire, and the fire truck has a new guy to baptize.

After-all you don't have time to waste, just get the axe and run those hoses.

[Mytical]

Unless there is a fire, and the fire truck has a new guy to baptize.

After-all you don't have time to waste, just get the axe and run those hoses.

Yes, yes, and yes. I will admit I take a tad bit of enjoyment at seeing a expensive car with its windows smashed in so the hose can go through it. I have to fight my inner Nelson (from simpsons? the ha ha kid?) and not point and say "Ha Ha!"

[notalwaysright]

I will admit I take a tad bit of enjoyment at seeing a expensive car with its windows smashed in so the hose can go through it.

I once lived on a quiet residential street where all the houses had driveways with room for two cars, and a little bit of street parking. Well, the fire hydrant was in the middle of the space between my house and the one next door, so the jerk neighbor was always blocking the hydrant with the third car. There was plenty of street parking across the street, not that there is an excuse. I was younger and nicer at the time, and never reported it. Today I would do it each time I saw it. I don't even know if the cops would do anything, (might just tell me to stop bothering them?) it just really irritated me. Walk across the street!

[sms001]

No matter, next time, ,he'll try even HARDER to make us believe it! And then, some day, some wonderful day.... we'll

...show up for the tow with a prepared sign that reads "Let me guess: you're just moving in?" to flash at him just before he opens his mouth.

Nicely told as always, Arga. Thanks for the chuckles.

[Jester]

All these permit stories make me just scratch my head, not just at the idiots who own the cars, but at the complexes that issue the permits. I'm sure they have their reasons, but I don't get why they don't do their permits the way my apartment complex does. Our parking permits are little stickers we stick on the inside lower corner of the windshield. They're unobtrusive for the driver, easy to spot and read for enforcement, and we never have to think about them. They're just there. No muss, no fuss. Also makes it tougher to forge.

It's the only explanation for people who I have told, to their faces, that I WILL tow them AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN until they get a permit.... and they just look at me funny, like, I just suggested they chop off an arm, or bathe themselves in maple syrup, get a permit? Why?! What kind of sense does that make? THEY HAVE AN EXCUSE!!!!

There's something wrong with bathing in maple syrup?

When you ask them to move, the drivers (who are waiting to pick up students) act like you asked them to sacrifice their firstborn or something.

There's something wrong with sacrificing the firstborn?

[mhkohne]

All these permit stories make me just scratch my head, not just at the idiots who own the cars, but at the complexes that issue the permits. I'm sure they have their reasons, but I don't get why they don't do their permits the way my apartment complex does. Our parking permits are little stickers we stick on the inside lower corner of the windshield. They're unobtrusive for the driver, easy to spot and read for enforcement, and we never have to think about them. They're just there. No muss, no fuss. Also makes it tougher to forge.

They want more flexibility. If you are going to do stickers it really needs to be a long-term permit, because people don't want to be scraping stickers off every couple of months. And Arga is in a college town where residents come and go relatively quickly.

[Argabarga]

Some places use stickers, some places have hangtags, either way, with 3 distinct semesters per year, your average 4 year student is going to have to find room for or scrape and reapply 12 of them over their career if they're somewhere that uses stickers. And, for whatever reason, people move around, a car I noticed at complex "A" in the Spring may be at complex "B" in the summer, complex "C" the next spring, and at an entirely different reality company's property by Summer....

Stickers are also a way to make money, some complexes charge a rate per-sticker and obviously, once it's stuck, it can't be put in another car, so, if you get a new car or yours breaks down and you're on a loaner, you have to purchase a temp or a new sticker.

If I ran a complex, I'd go with hangtags because it allows you to swap them around cars and cuts out the "but I had to use a different car" arguing, whatever you're driving, just put that in it, then there's no excuse for not having it up. The downside is, there seems to be no limit to the excuses about how they forgot to hang it up, or find it annoying and put it in the glovebox while driving and forget to take it out when they park.

Either way, there's always a way for someone to mess it up and go home crying to mommy when we tow them for it.

[Mr Hero]

There's something wrong with sacrificing the firstborn?

Not with sacrificing them, but the fact that these idiots are breeding should scare you.

[Jester]

Arga, if I owned or ran a complex in a non-college town, I'd go with stickers. Key West is a pretty transient town, so it's not like we don't get a lot of moving in and out like you would in a college town. Probably not as MUCH or as REGULARLY, of course, but it still happens. In a college town, I'd have to think about which system would be better. But as I said, in a non-college town, I'd definitely go for stickers. At my complex, we have to deal with them exactly once a year.

[Jarlaxle]

Note that in most states, it is technically ILLEGAL to drive with a hang tag on the mirror.

[BearLeeBadenaugh]

Ouch. Imagine the rage when he tries to get financing for something and can't because of the lien.

What always amazes me is how some people will do anything to try and get out of the lien. Well, anything but actually paying, that is. Really not gonna happen, btdt, got the paperwork down to a science and have a good lawyer on retainer.

I think my favorite lien story so far comes from a very nice neighborhood with an aggressive homeowners association. I've done a lot of the landscaping for the HOA as well as members there, so I'm usually recommended when the question comes up.

This particular job wasn't anything special as far as work done, but there was a lot of it. Any job with 3 acres of sod tends to be big and boring.

Usual story for my contracts, materials n employees paid up, business and me get paid off the final payment which is due upon job completion. Finished up the work and kept getting dodged when I try and talk to the customer, etc. Gave up and filed the lien.

About a year later he's trying to sell the house but runs into a nice little snag. Under his HOA, he has to use a specified realtor. Specified realtor won't deal with encumbered properties, and as such, I have to release the lien before he can even list the house. Did not take him long to get a check my way.

[wolfie]

Under his HOA, he has to use a specified realtor.

Just curious, but what happens if after someone buys a home subject to this HOA, they get married to a real estate salesperson who works for a different realtor, and the spouse's realtor has terms of employment that require that employees selling their home must deal through their employer? Does this mean that if the couple ever decides to move, the spouse has to quit their job?

[otakuneko]

I keep my mom's handicap placard in the pocket on the back of the passenger seat when not in use. There have been occasions where I almost forgot to put it up. >.>