Parking-space rage

Well, road rage???

No, where I live, people respect their neighboors property, kerbside parking is a-plenty and the biggest vandalism, my car has been exposed to there are all those pesky leaves falling on it.

I’ve been having a spot of my own parking-space rage of late, boiling up to a crescendo last night. But the circumstances are rather different from those under discussion. Having recently become the proud owner of a new flat with my very own numbered parking-space for my scooter in the basement car park, I have thrice returned to find another scooter occupying that space. It is my private property, just as much as the flat itself, and no-one else has any right to be parking there. The first time, I moved the offending scooter to one side, and wrote the owner an indignant note (in Chinese) about not parking in someone else’s private parking space. The second time, I wrote another even stinkier note and reported the matter to the building manager. He explained that the scooter owner had been renting that parking space before I bought it, and apparently wasn’t too willing to give it up, but promised to impress upon the guy that now it belonged to someone else and he couldn’t go on parking there. Last night I all but erupted when I found that bloody scooter in my place yet again. I immediately summoned the manager to come down and deal with it, and told him to make it clear to the guy that if I found the scooter there again, I wouldn’t be answerable for my actions. The manager was apologetic and promised to try his best to make the guy see reason, but I’m not too optimistic about the outcome. So what should I do? In the heat of the moment, I may not be able to restrain myself from laying about his machine if I find it trespassing in my space again. But that could lead to retaliation, escalating conflict, and big mafan – something that I’d rather avoid. I asked the manager if he could have the scooter towed away or impose a fine on its owner, but he seemed rather sceptical about doing anything like that. Sigh! Parking problems in Taiwan are not just restricted to those encountered on public property!

Too many rats in too small a cage.

Take a picture of the offending vehicle (with a date stamp) and move it.
You could either just move the scooter into the MIDDLE of the road, or move it to the side. Either way, after a couple of pictures, maybe you could place the pictures, a copy of your deed to the space, and a nice note saying that this stuff is going to the cops/lawyers/mafia boss next time he parks there.

Just tell the building management that if they can’t enforce their own parking rules, you’ll have the cops do it for them. AFAIK, squatter’s rights don’t apply to parking spaces :wink:

Omniloquacious

If the building manager will not call a tow truck, then you yourself call the tow truck.

I am sure there are cameras in the parking area so refrain yourself from doing anything you will regret. If he does something to your car hopefully they will have it on tape also.

He may or may not know that you are a foreigner and probably you want to keep that a secret from him, but he may eventually find out. The reason I say this is because he may be more likely to do something to your car if he knows you are not local.

Send a Chinese friend up to his apartment to have a chat with him. Making sure that the local friend tells him it is his car. Avoiding the obvious that the true car owner is a foreigner.

Try to avoid destructive vandalism - that can only lead to nastiness. I suggest letting the air out of his tires - no harm done, but it will give the guy pause - literally. You could also try removing the sparkplug, if you can find it. I find a lot of people here don’t even think to look at basic things like that… :sunglasses:

I used to park my scooter on the street outside a flower shop. The owner had marked a walkway there using potted plants so that customers could easily access the shop - fair enough. I only ever parked after the shop was closed and was gone before it opened. The one day I “overstayed” my ignition switch had been filled with Superglue!

I just started parking around the corner and regularly uprooted the potted plants after that

Well that’s what you get for overstaying just one time… Gotta becareful! They are relentless!

Omni, for the ultimate scooter prank, lightly oil or grease his brake disks. If you wanted it to be the total finesse, lubricate them with brake fluid.

Tony, I agree that those nasty shopowners ought to be well punished for that and deserve whatever you dish out to them. But is it really right to take it out on those poor, inoffensive potted plants? Plants have feelings too, you know.

By the way, how does one unsuperglue the ignition? Can solvent do it, or does the ignition have to be replaced?

I’ll fantasize about it. My fantasy will include such things as a gravel truck pulling out in front of him when he’s buzzing along in blissful unawareness at high speed. But I don’t think I’d better actually put that one into practice. Twenty years in a Taiwanese prison wouldn’t look good on my cv.