Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Getting Towed

A few months ago my apartment instituted visitor and resident parking zones.

Residents obtain stickers to park in the residential zones and not get towed.

Those who do not have stickers and park in the residential zones get towed away.

A couple of weeks after I got my new jeep I still hadn't gotten my resident sticker, so I parked in an area that I thought was a visitor parking space. I wasn't able to get the sticker until just a few days ago.

I never got towed, so I assumed I was ok.

Monday night, Michelle parked right next to my truck in the same area that I had been parking.

When I walked out the door the next morning, Michelle's car was gone.

"Michelle, you're car's been stolen!"

I even called work and told them about the situation and that I might be late for work.

Michelle was a bit upset, and of course I felt terrible about this whole thing, you know, trying to make it all work and make her happy and everything.

Then I remember about the towing zones.

So I looked at the two signs.

It was ok to park in the spaces to the left of one of the signs, and again to the right of the other, but not in the middle.

To secure my suspicions, I called the towing company and they had her Nissan.

Michelle's car had indeed gotten towed away. It cost $137 to get it out.

On the way over to the lot we were discussing the situation.

I made an errant comment about how she should have read the signs to make sure that it was ok to park where she did.

That did not go over well.

Conversations with a woman about who's right or wrong as well as their appearance are things that must be handed very delicately, or probably not at all.

It turns out that the reason my Jeep was never towed when it was parked there is because one night after I got my Jeep I had talked to the security guard on my way into the apartment, and he recognized me as a resident.