h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My sister has on three occassions now been accosted by a stranger because she has parked on the street.

This street is lined with houses, but is not residential parking - trust me, if it was she would never dream of parking there! The parking on the street is public, where people park every day, all day. My sister works in the afternoons at our parents business which has been there twenty years, has no parking facility of its own and has meant my parents have parked on that street and the adjacent ones every day from 9am to 7pm for the past twenty years. With no problem.

The man accosting her is a relatively new resident and has decided to pick on my sister, calling her stupid, getting right up in her face and being threatening. My sister, who has parked on those streets for the 10 years she's been past her driving test, is now scared of parking so she can go to work.

Mum talked to a police officer the first day it happened, who said it was public parking and anyone could park where they want. This week after the third accosting she went to the police station and talked to the community support officer who said exactly the same and said my sister could make a complaint. But she's convinced that would only make things worst.

I'm so angry and upset and scared myself because I park there, I will be in the next week or so to do the next window, but I admit I'm now pretty scared of parking there myself.

The thing is, no other resident has ever complained, in fact my dad knows alot of them through his work and none has ever had an issue. In fact one I'm positive said she didn't have an issue with anyone parking there. The other kicked is, the street my sister was parked on isn't the street this ass lives on. He lives on the one that everyone parks on and my sister never does.

Yes, we could pay to park, but it's expensive and the carparks are in poor condition and people park horrendously in there...plus there are always spaces on the street and when parking for five minutes yes, I'd probably pay, but we don't, we park for hours, not know when we'll be done at work, thing which we're there for taking anywhere from an hours to five or six.



I can't get it out of my head, so I thought I'd get it off my chest here. And yeah, I'm partly scared he'll do it to me but mostly I am angry and so upset that he's made my sister this upset and freaked out. Which is something I've rarely seen. Freaked to the point where she not only hid the other day after parking, but walked down three different streets to avoid him.

This man is an a**hole and a coward. He's picking on a young woman, who's 5'4" and was nothing but polite and apologetic to him. He would never pick on my father or any man, he's picking on women because he knows he's intimidating.

NB: My sister also suffers from bad depression, which she's being treated for, however this will damage her and will probably send her into a spiral no matter how hard we try to support her.

She thinks she's done something wrong, which she hasn't.

And in my head I keep running over what, if he did it to me, I would say. Except I wouldn't. I'd be a coward and probably cry. I hope we're not the only people complaining about this ass.

Hi Em

I don't know it you remember me, but we 'talked' a time or two. I always enjoy what you have to say, even if it is sometimes sad like this.

If you want a suggestion - Next time this A$$ tries to start something suggest he call the police, or better still offer to call them for him.

I'm not sure how things are in Scotland, but I know that would stop it one way or another in the US.

BTW could you explain what 'residential parking' means? I am not familiar with the term.

Wishing you luck and better times.

FS

Hi there,

Thank you for saying that, I'd love to write in my journal here once that something lovely's happened. But more often than not it seems since my return it's just been a place to vent. But thank you for reading my little rant.

My sister's already told him she's spoken to the police and he just laughed like the pathetic a** he is.

Residential parking, to elaborate, means you have a designated parking space attached too or on the street in front of your house or flat, which means you are the only personal allowed to park there. As opposed to public parking which allows anyone to park there at any time. The streets are public and anyone can park there any time, in fact they've only gotten quieter since the two schools moved to the end of town I live in!

The only ways to deal with this man is either to report him to the police or to ignore him, neither are easy but one or the other will need to be done. He's pathetic and I doubt anyone would disagree with me on that front.

None of us, my two sisters or I, are particularly confrontational, apart from with one another. We'd never knowingly do anything to hurt, anger or inconvenience anyone else so to have someone accost you on the street for merely parking legally is all the more upsetting. We're not in the wrong, he's just marking his new found territory.

There's a car which parks in the same place every day, the owners of a shop a few doors down from my parents, whom they know, I would love to have a chat to him and ask if he's been accosted in the same manner.

Anyway, thank you for your concern, it was nice talking again

Em

Saying you spoke to the police is kind of like saying Momma said I could. It claims a right without any proof. That is confrontational - my word against yours. Saying 'lets call Mommy out and ask her' puts the whole confrontation on somebody else, Mommy or the police.

The point is if the police do come out and she is wrong she will get a ticket and a fine. If on the other hand if the a** is told he is wrong in front of you he will be hard pressed to do it again.

I just don't know if the police in your town will respond that way. Here we have 'Community police officers' whose primary duty is settling just such disputes. Of course any crime has priority and you will have to wait.

Your whole family knows who he is so he knows that if anything bad happens he will be in prison for a long time. if he were that stupid he would be there already. He is just a stupid bully who should be put in his place by an authority figure. Not by you or you sister.

True enough. We'll see what happens, the worst that happens to us is we park on the street our parents do, which no one ever parks on.

I just think it's pathetic that a man of his age - 40's we think - is still bullying people. And young women at that. All for a parking space he has no right too on a street which frankly there's always spaces.

If he keeps doing it, we'll call the community police officer - we have them here too and she was the one my mum spoke too and said if it was her, out of uniform, she'd have been just as intimidated.

I just wish there was something I could do to cheer my sister up. She's sunk since this all happened, and up until recently, she was okay again.

Thank you for you