I do wonder about that. It was kind of my first thought watching the video that painted parking spaces seem to suggest a rental unit not a private home. I wonder what the landlord thinks about him pounding snow stakes into the asphalt if that is the case? 
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sigh
He did call the cops. And three tow companies. I don’t know why contributors even bother posting videos and articles.
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Yeah - he should just be aggressive and pay some kids to smash the windows when he’s visibly elsewhere.
After posting a sign about leaving your property without permission doesn’t constitute a bailment.
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If the car is not locked, pop it into neutral and have a couple friends come over and help you push it into the street, then call the cops about an abandoned car blocking things. I guarantee Car2Go will have even more fun when the police take it away for being improperly parked.
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Perhaps the linked article has been stealth-edited and once said that, but it doesn’t say that now. Other articles are pretty clear that he did phone police and the advice from the police was to call a towing company. Now that the Car2Go is responding to requests for comment by saying “we’ve asked the police for help”, the property owner is saying “if the police tell him he’s in the wrong, he’ll cooperate”
The Seattle Post Intelligencer asked the police for comment:
> Asked for comment, Seattle Police spokesman Jonah Spangenthal-Lee wrote: “If you find any vehicle parked on your property without your permission, you can call a tow company to have it removed.”, So that seems to confirm that giving this advice is the limit of the help that the local police provide for such an issue.
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So the police, the tow companies, and Car2Go are all pointing fingers at each other; meanwhile the homeowner (or renter) is denied the use of his driveway because of this peckerfight.
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This one of my problems with many of the sharing companies. They absolve themselves of much responsibility. Meanwhile many of their renters just drop off stuff in places that are inconvenient to others. I see too many scooters blocking sidewalks, curb cuts, etc. Yes, the person who used it could have been a little more thoughtful and parked it 3 feet away so it would be in the way of people using the sidewalks. I move these scooters, either gently or roughly out of the way of others. The scooter people at least set up systems to collect these scooters. Anyway, I’m not surprised that someone left a rented car on someone else’s private property.
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Would it not be classed as an unwanted gift or a delivery that wasn’t ordered? Might not apply in the good ol’ USA but I think in the UK, there is no legal requirement for the recipient of said unwanted item to return it, once the sender or delivery firm has been contacted. In this case, I would have thought that it’s up to the vehicle owner to arrange collection and then charge the renter accordingly. Accusing the guy of stealing the car seems to be stretching things a bit, if it’s just been dumped on his driveway. Good luck on the storage fees though. Think I would do the same.
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Reminds me of the old guy in my neighborhood when I was a kid-- “OK you damn kids, if it lands on my lawn again I’m keeping your Frisbee!!”
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You were a doomed exploitative gig-economy start-up backed by rapacious venture capitalists as a kid? Man, and I thought my refrigerator-box space-shuttle was ambitious. 
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With an automatic transmission, no need to pop it into neutral. In high school, we’d regularly push locked cars out of the way that were left in the school parking lot where the marching band practiced after school. Takes about 6-8 motivated kids. Did you know cars make an interesting “POP POP POP” sound as you move them while in park. If the parking brake is on, then it is another matter, except for tiny cars, like VW Beetles, which can be pushed/lifted/scraped to their new destination.
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Via: Digg, Via: Gizmodo, Via: The Seattle Times. Maybe we could just jump right to the original source when posting stories?
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It’s not like Car2Go doesn’t know who last used the car:
This entire dispute is so stupid. Car2Go works on the principle that you can leave a car-share car wherever you want when you’re done with it so long as you’re within a specified area. When I say “wherever you want” obviously what that means is “anywhere it’s legal to park a car indefinitely”. If the last user parked the car somewhere illegal Car2Go, the legal owner of the fucking car, should just move it and charge the dumbass user a penalty.
How is this not something they have to deal with all the time? This should be absolutely routine for them and they’re just being cheap assholes. If the last user left the car in a city lot and racked up lots of tickets and towing fees they’d absolutely be doing something about it, but because it’s just some guy who can’t legally get it towed they’re not doing anything.
This guy should get some tirejacks and just wheel it into the street in the middle of the night; I guarantee Car2Go would solve the problem immediately if their car was left blocking a public road.
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“Said he didn’t want to call the cops because he didn’t want that hassle.”
I thought that’s what he said during his TV interview, but I was mistaken. He said he wanted to solve it in a “controlled” situation, in a business like manner. Thanks for catching that.
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I assume it does happen frequently but people put up with and wait at day or two for the car to be taken by another customer?
I really don’t have an issue with what this guy did. The car is left on his property. So long as he doesn’t damage it in anyway then it’s on the company/owner to take responsibility.
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I think the bigger precedent that we should all be concerned with is: do average citizens really want to allow private businesses to walk all over them via allowing the latter to “borrow” property that doesn’t belong to them in the first place, and then profiting therefrom? Not me. I actually have a similar, ongoing battle. I live in a neighborhood that’s mixed single family houses w/ several rental homes here and there. I’m in the former group. The landlords (and their subcontractors) that own and operate the rentals seem to be under the impression that the single family properties are there to help subsidize their little businesses by various means (for instance, a truck may need to “borrow” my driveway to park for a while as they unload). That leaves me to play the “bad guy” and go out there every now and again and say: GET OFF MY LAWN!
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IANAL, but pretty sure this is only a viable recourse if already posted as a tow-away spot.
Yet another instance showing that the tradgedy of the commons is perpetrated universally by large corporations with no conscience, but only occasionally by individuals.
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The neighbors periodically have parties (and so do we) where attendees will park on the strip of lawn alongside the road that is technically owned by the county; they may use the same strip for deliveries. As long as the cars don’t block anyone and move out after a day or two, we can be flexible. I have called the county on cars that are obviously abandoned (expired or missing license tags, flat tires, don’t move for over a week, being stripped). This car is probably not abandoned, but Car2Go is getting terrible press from it.
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