Super-Sucky Firelane Suck-Fest With Bonus WTF

[Sapphire Silk]

The judge that handles our tickets shows a lot of leniency to fire lane violations, as if he doesn't trust security's judgement; he usually seems to take the driver's side if it was an occupied vehicle. We have a better chance of winning with unoccupied vehicles. I didn't want to write a ticket that would 80% likely be overturned and then have that 'gentleman' rub my nose in it. You're right though, I probably should have said I was calling the police after the 2nd refusal; so much for trying to be nice, ehe?

I'll bet that after the 2nd interaction if you simply started writing the ticket, he would have moved. He was calling your bluff, and it worked.

So what if he wins in court? He actually has to go to traffic court to dispute it. That means he has to waste his own time to fight it.

I've been to traffic court (a long story). It's a pain in the butt.

[LillFilly]

I'll bet that after the 2nd interaction if you simply started writing the ticket, he would have moved. He was calling your bluff, and it worked

I know, but I can write upwards of 40 tickets a month sometimes, and the judge has gotten upset at me for writing 'bad' tickets, IE, tickets that waste his time with no profit. IE, the ones HE overrules because they were 'bad calls... meaning the person usually gives the story "I was in the car the WHOLE TIME for 20 seconds and she just slapped a ticket on my windshield!"' So, I focus the most on handicap violators, since if they don't have one it's a win, and if they have one and forget to display it more than once they STILL have to pay the fine It encourages them to stop forgetting to hang their gorram permits, because you know my x-ray vision just doesn't work well these days.

I will be stronger with the next fire lane violator you guys, I promise! I never expected for it to turn into a doubles match though!

[Andara Bledin]

You know, if I were in your shoes, I would more than likely write even more tickets. I'd ticket every single car that even remotely earned one (though I wouldn't be a total hardass - that wouldn't be fair to those who are merely dim as opposed to actual douchebags).

And I'd start taking pictures of unoccupied cars for evidence. Just to fuck with him for being an asshole.

There's also a good chance I wouldn't be employed for very long.

^-.-^

[Kogarashi]

I'm fairly sure that fire lanes are legally "No Parking/Stopping/Standing" zones.

Most of the ones I've seen were only "No Parking" zones, meaning the sucky guy could've been there legally if his wife were actually outside, for active loading of their groceries and her. Beyond that, though? LillFilly is perfectly within her rights to ticket him for parking there too long. ::nods sagely::

We need more enforcement of this around here too. Thankfully so far, there haven't been wall-to-wall cars parked in the fire lane, but it never fails there's at least one sitting there and idling (or off, even!) for who knows how long while someone runs in "for just a second." The worst is when we get the bus that brings all the senior citizens at the beginning of the month to do their shopping, because the bus just sits there the whole time and blocks the view of traffic driving in front of the store.

[Nayeli_Sabia]

I partly wonder if SG and SG2 have a misplaced sense of elder defense. Maybe I'm just not willing to give up on humanity yet.

[mattm04]

I remember once we had to call a ambulance to our store for a customer. For some reason the police also showed up.

Someone had parked in the fire lane and left the car to just run in and grab one thing, or so they claimed. The police parked their car to block them in from the back and the ambulance from the front. They came out and got pissed they couldn't leave. They were stuck for about 20 minutes. As they were loading the patient in the ambulance, the cop wrote them a ticket for the fire lane violation. Needles to say the SC was pissed, threatening to call the Chief of Police, Ambulance company and our store to complain. Never called the PD or our store.

[DeltaSierra]

I like the idea of including a picture of the UNOCCUPIED vehicle in the fire lane with each ticket - kind of hard to dispute that!

[LillFilly]

Update:

Even thought it's been more than a week, one of our Jewelry Stores told me that the jerk was COMPLAINING ABOUT ME to them tonight! Of course, all he told them was that I was 'yelling' at him. Riiiight.

[downforit2008]

I push carts for a living myself, and can't begin to tell you about the number of ASSHATS who would deliberately park on the fire lane, which I would have to get rid of the past three years. When asking them politely didn't help, I began using my cart-pushing machine in a manner to where it looked like I was going to hit them if they didn't move, and this always worked! One day, I was completing a turn of carts with the machine and some idiot in a station wagon attempted to cut me off while wanting to pull into the fire lane. My machine ripped off half the guy's bumper like it was tin foil! As I laughed like a hyena, since the machine wasn't damaged at all, the idiot then took off and left the store, knowing he would be punished for trying to park illegally anyway.
When the machine broke down a year later, I began stacking extra shopping carts along the line to cut off any incoming vehicles wanting to park on the fire lane, which worked half the time, depending on how busy the store was, so I couldn't use 40 extra carts for this detail if they were needed inside!
My greatest moment of triumph came whenever some idiot moron would park their vehicle RIGHT in front of the cart doors where the carts were supposed to go through! While they were shopping inside, I'd put anywhere from 60 to 80 carts all around their car, completely sealing it off from a way out. Then I'd stand back and watch with a smirk as the people came back and having to get the carts out of the way just to get out. It would take some time, and I KNEW for certain that they would never park there again!
And then a couple of months ago, my store was remodeled and the remodel crew accidentally left behind their road cones from when they were doing outside work on the store. I put them to great use, positioning them apart at distances that cars couldn't take advantage of, and this has been a great success! Some dumb woman in a minivan pulled up on the first day that I had set the cones up, demanding that I let her park there.
I gave out a sneer and asked in a harsh tone, "WHY would I want to ENCOURAGE customers to park here ILLEGALLY??? I could lose my job for that! You should just park like everyone else in this lot is doing...the RIGHT way!"

She gave me a nasty look and sped away. I never saw her again. Probably parking her "soccer mommy" vehicle on someone else's fire lane, I guess. But to this day, parking violators have been at an all-time low, from up to 70 or 80 cars parking illegally per shift and down to an average of maybe 2 or 3 at best! If you can't convince them to move their damn car somewhere else, then force them to by taking drastic measures!

[Caractacus_Potts]

I adore your shopping center for allowing/inviting the cops in to take care of shit like this. I wish more would be pro-active about such things.

Years ago when I worked at a McD's in a mall the city police would do regular patrols telling people to move or ticketing vehicles.

Hell, even I got a ticket one day when I was unloading some cases of cups from my personal vehicle. The cop said if I had put a sign saying, "LOADING" in the window he would have let it go but since I had left the car unoccupied while I carried in boxes he had to give me a ticket. I told him not to worry about it since McDonald's would be paying the ticket and they have plenty of money.

[Misanthropical]

I haven't worked in Security for awhile now, but seeing asshats park in the fire lane in front of the "No Parking" sign still makes my teeth itch.

One woman parked her mini van in front of the slanted down part of the sidewalk that one would use to go in and out of the store if they used a wheelchair or walker. I was using a walker at the time and was going in to get my pain medication which I really really needed. I told her if she didn't move so I could get in I would ram my walker straight into her mini van and see which one of us the cops would side with. She didn't say a word and moved out of the way.

Mr. Mis says he can tell when I'm having more than normal pain flare ups because I get even more evil than usual. I have no idea what he is talking about!

[MoonCat]

The guy was bad enough, but what's with the stupid woman interfering? That part really makes me angry. I probably would have told her to GTFO or I would call the cops on her, seeing as how it's illegal to park in the fire lane and she was interfering with me doing my job. Stupid woman.

[tropicsgoddess]

I would've ripped that "lady" a new one for being a busybody and given that old coot a ticket. The evil comes out with jerkoffs.

[LillFilly]

I agree with everyone; I was too nice for too long trying to explain something to someone who was wouldn't, not couldn't, understand. I can't seem to win. Next time I'll just mention a ticket on the 2nd warning, then follow-up with the police. It will give bystanders less time to butt-in.

Hmm.. I wonder if it ended-up on youtube...

[Bloodsoul]

Now, we're an Orange Apron. People are going to be buying heavy items or items in bulk. They're going to need to load, and it does take time, especially when the forklift is involved. We and the cops understand this. However, one, there is a designated loading zone at the lumber doors ("I don't want to walk that far!") and two, you don't need to be in the fire lane if you're not actively trying to load your car!

I work for an Apron, too, but unfortunately we only get cops coming by once in awhile. It's frustrating when people park in the firelane and just walk off, it's doubly so when they park in the loading zone and walk off (especially when someone really needs the space to load something big).

I think what gets me, however, is when the service desk and garden encourages people to park in the firelane to load (because the loading zone is too far away?) or, worse, someone parks in the road just outside of the lane. There's an entrance/exist right by the building entrance where the desk/garden is located, while our other entrance/exist is far, far away from the loading zone; so this makes loading at the building entrance a dangerous proposition at times.