Business systematically videos people getting towed from its parking lot

Also, it grinds my gears when businesses won’t let people park in their lots during non-business hours, except that I can see it being a perfectly rational reaction to liability concerns in our liability obsessed culture and legal system.

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Spent a week in Israel and watched a fleet of these tow trucks grabbing cars right off the street. Parallel parking is not immune from tow companies.

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That’s a problem at our library. We lock the lot at night because otherwise it would become a place for abandoned cars (has happened), a handful of people living out of their cars who would empty their trash before leaving in the morning (if they did leave), people who want to walk to nearby attractions with limited parking like the farmers’ market (happens), or people too lazy/cheap to find other parking (happens). All those things would reduce the amount of parking for our patrons; other libraries have it worse with even less available parking. Add that on top of liability issues and you get a hot mess.

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Oblig:image

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Or it could just be that some people parked in the wrong place and got their car towed.

I think the interesting rabbit hole this leads down is the relationship between rules, people, society, and the enforcement mechanisms. Situational rule breaking, good or bad? I strive very hard to be a no harm-no foul kinda person, but I also can understand how seeing others break rules without consequences can feel frustrating, even though rationally it makes no sense if they don’t directly harm anyone.

But like the song I posted, I think there is merit to not overthinking this.

In this case the loading dock is used at all hours. Possible deliveries, also people with IT issues.
(Paraphrased from FAQ)

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I’ve been watching these for awhile and am hooked. The production value is improving. This is the first one I’ve seen with the tow ghost at the end. As you dig into it you’ll see, there are tons of signs and cameras. Some of the people who ignore them seem to already be drunk when they park there.

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True, but what they did wrong was to park illegally on private property where the owners have gone to considerable lengths to warn them. I’ve watched a lot of these videos and it’s often quite apparent that the “parker” notices and ignores the signage. In one video the owner advised a “parker” via loudspeaker that it was a restricted area, but was ignored. In another a staff member is approached as he puts the garbage bins out for collection. He points out the parking restriction, but the “parker” still decides to park.
You run the risk, you take the consequences.

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Is being too lazy and/or cheap and/or entitled to park your car legally and NOT on someone’s private property when you’re going out drinking or shopping really a "larger, genuinely difficult systemic problem?

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Don’t we already see the driver-version of this with Uber and Lyft?

And with traditional taxi companies, for that matter.

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If a bunch of random people all parked in your driveway, front yard, garden, whatever you consider your private space, to go off for possibly many hours to do whatever, after you asked them to not do that, would you be the victim or would they be the victim? In your quoted text you repeatedly call these people victims.

To be clear. There are places, that have intentionally deceptive signage with the express intention of tricking honest people into thinking they can legally park, and then towing them for profit. In that case, these people are the victim of a scam clearly.

In the case of these videos the owner and customers and big signs all seem to be trying to clearing and correctly inform people of the risks. So I am not sure how they qualify as victims.

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man, bicycles keep looking better and better.

I used to live in a club district. my neighbor and I went out in his car late one afternoon and returned when it was still light but the “nightlife” was starting, I guess. my neighbor parked his car, which had a tag identifying he was a resident on it, in his building’s lot .
we saw a couple giving money to an obviously homeless dude as we exited the car. the homeless dude ran over to us: “You have to pay to park!”
my neighbor looked him in the eye and said “no-ooo… I don’t.” and then we both started cracking up.
the dude floundered for a minute, then mustered an “oh” and shuffled off.
The interesting thing was that his spiel was working despite the fact that he was obviously NOT a lot attendant. those of us who lived there just laughed it off, while those Cobb county residents looking for authentic ATL nightlife (and parking illegally), their brains short-circuited at the prospect at being confronted by a homeless black person and were all too willing to throw money at him to make him go away.
so, this explains the scammers mentality. monetizing white discomfort. meh. don’t hate a player, hate the game, I say.

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The company has a need for open parking spaces 24/7 for their paying customers.

I’m starting to doubt that you’re even a sausage roll.

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I just figured out that you can look at the google cache which buys you a precious few seconds to hit ctrl+a to select all and then ctrl+c to copy. Then just paste it in a word processor, and BAM! Theft!

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This same thing happened many times to us down in Costa Rica. The beaches would have sketchy looking guys collecting money from tourists to park there. It’s impossible to know for sure if they’re legitimate or just scamming tourists.

Being in a foreign country we felt it better play it safe and shell out the $5 bucks than risk getting hauled off by a local police in on the scams.

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A competent tow company won’t have any problems there. You might get some car damage but that’s your problem since you parked illegally.

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I just want to note that GTOger, the poster of the original video, is a big mean poopyhead, my edit (only 3 minutes out of 8) with different music earned me a copyright strike for my efforts. A pox on your business, and may your parking lot be taken away from you for a redevelopment project.

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This channel has 193 thousand subscribers. That’s over 3000 dollars USD in ad revenue to GTOger.
Who’d a thunk it!

You know what would be fun? Your car is parked smack in the middle of a crowded lot, and you get to watch as half the cars wake up and rearrange themselves to make a path to let your car out.

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