Tip Towed.

[myswtghst]

I would be 100% on the side of the manager if not for an unpleasant experience I had a couple years back.

Far as I can tell, in the OP, the manager made every effort in a small fast food restaurant to make sure there were no customer cars being affected. Unless someone was camped out in the bathroom for quite some time to miss the towing, I can't see an actual customer's car being towed.

I'm still on the side that thinks this is hilarious and quite appropriate, especially given that, within the bounds of the law, the manager did nothing wrong. Not only that, they were able to extract some revenge AND teach the kids a valuable lesson about reading signs.

[Zyanya]

I would be 100% on the side of the manager if not for an unpleasant experience I had a couple years back.

My sister and I went to a pizza place that had limited parking. She decided there was nothing at the pizza place that had what she wanted, so she walked across the street to a Mexican restaurant, stopping at the car to grab her purse. Apparently, the manager did not see her come in with me, but instead saw her close the car door, sling her purse over her shoulder, and head across the street. So he assumed she was 'not a customer', and called for a tow. 20 minutes later, I'm done with my pizza and the pinball machine is no longer holding my interest, so I go outside to find my car gone.

Never did get my $200 back from the idiot manager. He gave me a coupon for a free large pizza and thought that made up for my 'inconvenience'.

So I'm only 98% on the side of the manager in this story.

[Gurndigarn]

A drive-tru liquor store? I need to hear more about this

Think of an extended-length garage with hootch in it. They're high on the hit list of many drunk driving campaigns.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

The way I see it, they're not customers of the restaurant anymore; they've left the restaurant but left their cars parked in lot clearly signed as parking for restaurant customers only.

So where are future customers for the restaurant going to park?

And they've made a ginormous mess that civilized people wouldn't even think of leaving.

Therefore, mad props to the OP's manager. Mad, mad props.

[karl hungus]

There is a very popular liquor store on Bardstown Rd. here that stays quite busy on weekends especially during the summer. The only problem is they have a very small lot, maybe about 4 spaces and a drive-up lane. Now, on weekends the street parking is taken up pretty quickly by people going to the other businesses in the immediate area ( a record store, BBQ place, a trendy international restaurant, a pizza place, etc), and there's also a constant stream of traffic because The Highlands is full of cool places to shop or eat at. Well anyway, one Saturday night, according to the liquor store owner, he noticed that there's been a big ol' SUV parked in one of his spaces in the lot for about an hour. He askes around the store and it belonged to nobody there so he calls to have it towed. As the tow driver is hooking up to it this upwardly-mobile looking guy comes running from the BBQ place across and up the street . He runs up and starts screaming at the tow driver and the store owner comes out and tells him why he is being towed. It seems the guys excuse for parking in one of the 4 spots on a busy weekend night was that he was tired of driving around looking for a place to park so he pulled in there. But he felt it was ok because him and his wife probably were gonna buy something to drink for when they got home.

He still got towed.

[RebeccaOTool]

Awsome. Awsome to the max.

[Severen13]

That was beautiful.

[Record Store Tough Guy]

Yes the shop was legally in the right; but, to me..I think the manager went over the top. We'll just have to agree to disagree on this one

All things being equal, I think the manager acted appropriately and reasonably, even had the the dining room not been trashed beforehand. From the OP, it sounds as if every space was taken by abandoned cars, meaning parking would be denied for any future potential customers, resulting in lost business. Even if there were one or two open spaces, there was nowhere near enough to accommodate a potential future rush. That alone justifies the manager's actions. The fact that the "victims" were recently engaged in trashing the dining room adds a certain sweet air of vindication, but is ultimately irrelevant.

Case in point, there is a small strip mall near my house that houses an excellent (and subsequently very popular) Mexican restaurant. Unfortunately there is not enough parking (even with complimentary Valet service) during weekend dinner rushes. Initially people started parking at the adjacent Wendy's. When it became a problem, the Wendy's started towing cars. They have dinner rushes too.

[Velfarre2001]

Here is your tip you idiots, don't piss off someone when you are blatantly breaking the law on their property.

Pure 100% unfiltered OWNAGE not from concentrate.

[zzapp the witch]

GOLD. Hell, platinum.

[Andara Bledin]

Personally, I wish more businesses would be a little more hardassed about their "parking for customers only" rules. If it happened more often, it would stop being such a problem and everybody would win.

Honestly, of the kids going to the party, all of the smart ones parked in a local mall lot, and not some dinky fast food place's lot. Unless you're there overnight, nobody's going to notice a few dozen extra cars in the lot.

^-.-^

[Broomjockey]

We'll just have to agree to disagree on this one

I'd agree to that, if I didn't agree a bit with you. Devil's Advocacy is a tricky business

[ReverendBSB]

I used to work at a pizza buffet right next to LSU. Parking was a major problem, so when school was in a guy from the local towing company would stand in our parking lot from opening to well after lunch. We had signs all over saying not to park if you were not a customer but no one wanted to acknowledge them. So when someone would park and walk off the towing guy would get on his radio to a truck parked right down the road, and in less than two minutes that car would be towed. They made a fortune off of us. I had to personally deal with a lot of the idiots coming back to find their cars towed, and they all deserved it.

[theredbaron47]

The manager's actions were in no way over the top. In fact, he probably did all of those teenagers a favour for the future: he taught them that signage indicating they can be towed under certain circumstances do not lie.

Yes, he most likely was motivated by anger into actually going through with it. But legally, he most certainly was right to do so. None of those teens were customers ( anymore, as it were ) of the restaurant. And unless this McD's is bigger than anyone I've ever seen, 18 extra spaces is a lot of parking lot area for one restaurant.

I hope they've learned a lesson or two, and maybe lost their driving privileges for a week or two to boot.

My mother plays Russian Roulette, so to speak, with this type of situation. . . parking in lots with signs that indicate, "We Will Tow!". I keep waiting for the day her car actually does get towed.

[kibbles]

Remember, the kids being sucky in the restuarant or not, they were still sucky parkers. You can (and should be encouraged to) disagree with what happened, but thinking that the kids who didn't trash the resturaunt are somehow innocent victims is a pretty narrow way of looking at the situation.

We now end this test of the Devil's Advocate system.

Yes the shop was legally in the right; but, to me..I think the manager went over the top. We'll just have to agree to disagree on this one