Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/05/31/upset-man-builds-fence-around.html
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12 Likes
This seems petty until you start calculating the value of parking in Seattle.
44 Likes
I was reading this and it occurred to me, the company is claiming that they will do all they can to get their stolen property returned. If they win their case it will set a precedent that could call into question all impounds. Get your car towed and held hostage by a towing company for a ridiculous sum? it will become theft.
Is that such a bad thing? Perhaps it will force more reasonable costs or limits to getting your vehicle out of impound
20 Likes
It’s not like Car2Go doesn’t know who last used the car: agree to the tow when the homeowner calls in the problem, charge the arsehole user for the trouble (or take the loss this time and add it into the contract), everyone wins. I’m sure that the homeowner would drop all the silliness about storage and fence-building if Car2Go just reclaims its “stolen” property by sending a tow truck.
56 Likes
I would have thought a towing company would be happy to take the car. Impound fees are good money.
34 Likes
I was going to say. I was 150 miles from where I started in a Car2Go (don’t ask) and when I forgot to lock the door when I stepped out for a moment, they immediately locked the engine and texted me. They are at least as much of a people-monitoring company as they are “ride-share” company. This seems easy to solve.
23 Likes
Stolen? It seems to me it was left on his property, so if the company tries to go that route, it should fall under either abandoned property laws, or illegal dumping.
But yeah, calling for a tow is probably the best way out of the situation.
31 Likes
No, no, this is 2019! We have to build a wall!
34 Likes
The fence looks pretty flimsy. Anyone who comes near should get a tetanus shot.
Maybe the flimsiness is deliberate though, so that he can claim that no reasonable person would consider it to be a true barrier (as compared to a chain link fence).
2 Likes
The car rental company was going to leave the car there until it was rented by someone else, who’d then pick up the car and take it elsewhere. As if this apartment parking lot was their own rental lot. That’s crazy, this guy is absolutely right to try to put a stop to it.
55 Likes
Here’s a more detailed article. He did call the company (Cars2Go) then he called the parent company and got the run around, He called 3 different tow companies who all declined to pick it up because the lot was not posted, then he put up the fence. Said he didn’t want to call the cops because he didn’t want that hassle.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/seattle-man-builds-fence-around-car-share-vehicle-at-duplex/ar-AAC9nue
46 Likes
There were no tow away signs posted in advance. Maybe that’s the issue?
I call BS on the “I was worried about the liability nightmare” story. His jury rigged fence is a liability nightmare, far more so than someone backing out of the parking space.
7 Likes
That is what the company DOES do. This passive-agressive dill-hole could have just called a towing company but instead is holding the car ransom for a payoff. (And if he is the “owner”, as he claims, he doesn’t have to post no parking signs, so I call BS on his trying multiple tow truck companies.)
Car2Go has tried to retrieve the car. He built the fence into the pavement, so they’d have to “destroy” his property to get the car out. And he won’t take down the fence unless his gets his shakedown money.
2 Likes
Car2Go? More like Car2NoGo.
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He did. Three of them. Watching the video before you post is your friend. Or even just reading the comments above yours. I know, I know…ain’t nobody got time for that. 
51 Likes
It’s the homeowners now.
Right of salvage for abandoned ship and all.
16 Likes
He did call several towing companies. They refused to pick up because no notices were posted. You can call BS on that, but his priority seems to be to get this Car2Go off his property and to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
I don’t know how it works in Seattle, but towing businesses can be sleazy. Some won’t tow someone else’s vehicle from a property unless the property owner agrees to an exclusive contract in connection with the notice.
I see no evidence that they have from the news story. It looks like they were waiting for another paying customer to drive it away at no cost to them rather than take care of it themselves in a timely manner when the property owner requested it.
They could have just said they’d handle it with his first complaint. Text a local regular customer, give him a $20 credit for going to the property, getting the car at no charge, and parking it somewhere legal. But they dragged their feet and played “it’s not our responsibility” games, so he decided to play the game right back in the media.
41 Likes
Not sure I believe this. He’s now turned it into a legal mater, which is more of a hassle but I presume its what he wants because he can get a payday out of it. As I see it he didn’t involve the cops because he wanted to take it to court.
4 Likes
That’s frontier justice, yep.
1 Like
That surprised me too. Assuming the duplex is the only home on the property, it’s less than four housing units and therefore should be classed as private residential property. Assuming he’s the owner of the property, he’s well within his rights to have it towed and impounded. I wonder if the tow companies saw the painted lines and refused to believe it was residential. Or they might just be sleaze-buckets as @gracchus notes.
12 Likes
