Driver divides opinion after refusing to give up parking spot for a disabled woman
A driver has divided opinion after refusing to give up their parking spot for a disabled woman - but there is more to this story than meets the eye.
The altercation was shared in the AITA (Am I the A**hole) section of Reddit by u/itsmyparkingspot, who described how they live in an apartment building where each renter is entitled to one parking spot.
No problems so far, right? Well, this all changed when the building manager asked if they could switch their spot with a disabled woman who was set to move in.
Advert
While the OP happily agreed, they were told they'd misunderstood the arrangement - he was asking them to give up their space entirely.
The reason being that the new neighbour used a van with a powered ramp and therefore needed more room to use it.
"I pointed out to him that the parking spot was part of my lease," they wrote.
A couple of weeks later, they rocked up to the garage to see the van parked next to their spot.
The OP continued: "I pulled in, parking as far from it as I could. The next day I get a call from a woman about 7:30am - she said that she was the owner of the van needed me to move my car.
"I wasn’t happy - I had still been asleep, but I went down to move my car. She did the same thing the next three days.
"The next morning (a Saturday) she called me at 5:30am - and I told her she had to be kidding.
"I went down and told her that I don’t wake up normally until 8:30am and I would appreciate it if she didn’t call before then.
"She told me that she had plans and not to be a jacka**. I reminded her that I was doing her a favour by coming down."
But the spat was far from over, as when the OP got home that evening, the van was partially in their space, meaning they couldn't park.
"When she picked up she said something snarky like 'isn’t it annoying to have to wait on someone'," they wrote.
The Redditor then had the woman's vehicle towed after warning her on the phone.
Shortly after, the apartment manager and the neighbour were banging on their door saying they needed to compromise.
"I never agreed to be woken up early every day and I certainly ever agreed to give up my spot entirely," they explained.
"She said that she was promised a spot she could use. What was she supposed to do?
"I told her that she needed to work that out with him (pointing at apt mgr) and leave me out of it. I am done running every time she calls. She called me an a**hole as they left."
The OP said they 'felt bad', but it appears the online community are mostly on their side. That being said, people are divided as to who's at fault here - the woman or the apartment manager.
As said by one: "Honestly? I think the only AH here is the apartment manager who doesn’t have designated handicap parking. What exactly is this disabled person supposed to do?"
Defending the neighbour, one person described how difficult it can be when needing extra space for ramps.
They added: "The neighbour was NTA until she purposely blocked his spot. The apartment manager is definitely TA here."
And then there were those who reassured the OP, including this Redditor who said: "You did the right thing initially thinking you'd give her the closer spot. You don't have to give up your spot entirely."
Daisy Phillipson