My very own CF parking thread!!

[Hiphopopotamus]

My anger at the situation is ever so slightly mitigated by the fact that I get my very first parking thread!

My DH and I are heading out this morning. We’re picking up our niece to take her out for the day. She has a fairly chaotic home and for us it’s important that when we say we’re doing something with her we follow through, as other adults in her life let her down a lot.

So...we go to get the car out of our driveway. We have gates across the drive so it might not be obvious that there is a car there. However, directly outside it is a dropped kerb, and it is our drive. I open the gates to get the car out this morning, and a car is parked right across it! It’s impossible to manoeuvre around it and we’re properly blocked in.

What do we do? We have no way of knowing who the car belongs to - it could belong to anyone on a fairly big street. It feels early to knock on doors on a Saturday morning (I have no problem waking up the CF, but I would feel bad waking up the innocent! ) but we genuinely have no idea what to do. We’re already going to be late for DN as we were supposed to leave 45 minutes ago.

It's times like this I wish I had a huge car with bull bars to knock the bloody thing out of the way. Or was married to a strongman who could just drag it 😄.

My exh used to get annoyed with this happening and call the police. They log a crime report but I don't think they actually do anything about getting the car moved.

101 are wrong in saying it's a civil matter. Try them again.

I seem to remember a thread a long time ago when a rugby team happened by and moved the car - do you happen to know any rugby players, OP?

Seriously, I hope that you get this sorted soon.

How inconsiderate, hope you manage to find whose car it is soon enough!

Do what they do abroad. Pull your car up close to it and just press the horn for a Very Long Time. Someone will come out.
(as long as you are not near a station or whatever)

How rude! I hope you find them op.

Do you have a street FB page or local FB page or NextDoor? Maybe take a few photos of the car across your drive, illustrating the Reg number and how you’ve been trying for over 45 minutes to find the owner as you were due someplace and still can’t get out.

I also second setting off the car alarm.

Is it easy to set off a car alarm?

This is a tad un-neighbourly.
But:lock your own car,set off it's alarm:await developments!
The owner of the culprit car may well hear an alarm nearby and appear, fearing it is his.
If folks complain,in the tension of being parked in,you set off your own alarm by mistake.
Anyway,it's not that early in the day.

Carry on door knocking or stand in the street and shout out the make, model and reg as loud as you can and see if that works.

Call 101

They will try and call the owner and get it moved.

What, no diagram?

Like a pp I’ve called the police before in a situation like this. They called the car owner and then called me back to say that she was going to move it but she was steaming angry.

That was 20 years ago, but in Brighton so hardly a sleepy backwater.

I agree with sitting in your car with your horn blasting.

Kick it so the alarm goes off or sit in your car bibbing your horn.

I would lean on the horn (I mean I wouldn't because I'm a massive wuss but I've seen neighbours do it round here to great effect)

Hope that you are on your way, Op.

9.30 too early-wtf???

6.00 wouldn't be too early if you needed to get your car out!

How would 101 know anyone’s number?

I'm in the just give the car a good shake to set off the alarm camp!

Panama I would assume they get it from the Dvla

Give it a nudge. If the alarm goes off the owner may appear. Most drivers know their own alarm sound!

PanamaPattie I’m guessing they check the number plate with the dvla and get the owner info.

OP is there anything nearby they may have parked up to go to, like shops or something?

Why would you ring 101 before knocking on a few doors first?!

I tend to shy away from confrontation but even I think that’s nuts!

This doesn’t help the situation but where I live, you can ring the council and they will send someone out within 15 minutes and give them a fine/parking ticket if they are blocking a dropped kerb. Hope your car is free soon

Just here to be nosey lend moral support and hope you get out soon.

I was even conta Ted when I'd parked perfectly properly! The guy wasn't happy I was parked in fron of his house, there was no line so perfectly legal, ut he called the police saying that I was blocking the road in case of an emergency ( I wasn't, there were no cars on the other side when I parked but afterwards, people living there parked in front of their house hence potentially blocking the way to a firetruck.

Still the police managed to find my place of work and calling there, resulting in the PA calling where I was (work meeting) saying I needed to move my car urgently as I was blocking a fire truck. When I go there, no fire truck, no police, just an irate local telling me I shouldn't park there. When I told him there were no yellow or white line, he approached the car with is fistsup, I moved quickly!

If they can find someone in their work place when they are doing nothing wrong, they should certainly find the person who is blocking someone's driveway.