Parking Pandemonium

I created quite a commotion at the downtown mall today. Thank goodness I was in abstentia (or rather, happily shopping with some good coupons I scored.)

So I parked in the parking deck and went my merry way. When I returned a couple hours later, my car was in the same parking space but somehow not in the same spot. There were also two pylons behind the back tires, and a phonebook behind one of the front tires. Not to mention the notes stuck on the window from the parking lot manager and the police department.

As it turns out, I forgot to set the parking brake (I ALWAYS set the parking break!), and the car rolled backward into another car and blocked traffic circling around the structure. Can you imagine the problems that must have caused?

Following the instructions written on the notes, I went down to the parking structure office and turned myself in. The dude in there laid into me:

"If you're going to park in my structure, you'd better follow the rules. You created a huge mess...we had to call in the police…[blah, blah, blah]."

"Sorry." (And I really meant it.)

"Don't tell me you’re sorry."

"OK, but I don't know what else to say."

"Where are the pylons?"

"I left them back at the parking spot. Want me to go get them for you? It's the least I can do."

"No."

"You want me to just get out of here?"

"Yes."

Enough said. I honestly felt terrible about my knuckleheaded move, but whad'ya gonna do? I was mostly glad I didn't return to my car in the middle of the chaos – and that neither car suffered anything more than a little paint scratch.

Driving home, I could really only laugh at the situation, but I did wonder what kind of karma makes something like that happen to me? I'm sympathetic to others. I'm not a road rager. I compost. I guess now I need to follow all the parking lot rules too. Man, it's an tough world out there.

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