PS - Case in point - Ken or a Kyle (AKA a Male Karen) ...

 

A few weeks ago, at about 11:00 p.m on a Thursday night, I heard a big ruckus outside and went out on my balcony to see what was going on, because I'm nosy like that, I guess!  😂

So because we have such little parking, our apartment complex has a towing company. 

Do they actually come on the weekends and tow people visiting without stickers preventing actual residents from parking?

No, they do not.

Instead, they tow actual residents whom they claim parked "illegally."

We've never been towed, but it's usually residents that are, rather than visitors parking here overnight without stickers.

Here is an example of the "illegal" parking according to the tow company.

No, it's not the Chevy Charger parked on the white parking line ( although if the tow company came by, right now, he'd get towed for that, too).

It's the unmarked area circled in red.

As you can see, there's plenty of space for a car between that last  white parking line and the "maintenance parking only" sign a few yards away. 

(Which, btw, the apartment manager and maintenance guy told us was left by prior management and they pay no attention to anyway and don't care).

You can also clearly see that there is no handicapped parking spot in front of that building, but there is one in front mine.

Thus, there is an older couple who lives in that building, his wife being handicapped and having all of the appropriate stickers and tags - and we don't care. It's well known to just be "their spot" and none of us park there because of it.

However, Towing Guy does not care in a different way - and starts to tow their car for being an an "unmarked spot" at close to midnight on a Thursday.

Everyone in that building - and I do mean everyone - came out to yell at the guy to stop, she's handicapped and has nowhere to park. 

The guy whose wife is disabled got really mad and said "Dude, I'm gonna sue you, if you do take it, plus you raked the front of it across the ground when you put it on the truck, to the point we saw sparks. If there's damage to my car, you're in  double trouble."

The problem was - tow truck driver thought he said "SHOOT you."

(To be honest, I wasn't sure myself, from up on the balcony, until he said it again, several more times, and it was definitely "SUE you")

So I noticed the tow truck guy is just sitting there in his truck with the windows rolled up scrolling on his phone, with my neighbor's car on the tow, and doesn't leave -  which is only escalating things.

So I'm thinking to myself "Just take it and go, then, why you just sitting there still, letting it escalate?"

At this point, my spidey senses started tingling that there was something racial about this that I couldn't quite put my finger on, other than this truck driver was a white redneck with a Trump sticker and almost all the residents of that building are black. 

So then I proved it was racially motivated.

How?

I tested it.

I went down there to my neighbors and asked them to let me just try to talk to the driver for a second to de-escalate it..

When I tapped on the window, he smiled and rolled it down for me, right away!  😂

Three guesses as to why white redneck tow truck driver with a Trump sticker opened the window to talk to me VS. the rest of my neighbors in that building, who are all black  😂

So I asked his side of things. 

He said he called the police on them because they threatened to shoot him.

I told him I thought he said that at first, too, but when he said it 3 more times, it was clear he said "sue." 

I then said I didn't know if calling the police was necessary because I think he may have misheard him PLUS it was clear he had no gun anyway, he was wearing nothing but boxer shorts because he'd been in bed lol.

I said to maybe just take the car and go, rather than call the police over threats he can't prove and may have misheard -  because all that's being accomplished by sitting here in his tow truck, with their car on his truck, is escalating it.

This brief reprieve did quiet my neighbors from yelling for a minute, and then sure enough, the police the tow truck driver had called arrived a few minutes later - 2 white cops, male and female.

 I turned around then and said to my neighbors "Heads up, y'all - that's why he's still here - he called the cops on you for 'yelling for " lolyelling at him."

However, I was pleasantly surprised - I stepped back and let my neighbors talk to the cops who DID listen to them about what had gone on and they were honest and admitted to threatening to sue him.

The cops then walked over to verify the spot wasn't clearly marked, that his wife was handicapped and did have the appropriate stickers on their car,  and that there was no handicapped spot for that building for them.

So then cops said "Yeah, these guys are predatory, They don't care what the rules are, they just want their money and will tow you if you so much as park too far over on a line. It's really a civil issue, I'm not sure why he called us or why he's still sitting here."

Then the female cop knocked on his window -  with the driver still in it, still claiming he felt unsafe - so he rolled his window down and started to go into how all "those people" were "threatening to shoot him." 😂

Lady cop just held up her hand and said "Sir? Enough. I don't know who said what, I wasn't here, but no one has a gun.  This is a civil matter. You can go. Take the car and go, then, there's no reason for you to be sitting here escalating it.."

THEN I chimed in and said "I think this was all just a big misunderstanding. As you can see, this spot isn't clearly marked. I also think the threat to sue was misheard as shoot, another misunderstanding. I think it just freaked him out."

Big bad redneck tow truck driver said "I'm NOT scared!!! I was unsafe! I have to deal with this all the time, I call the cops all the time!"

Lady Cop sais "Yeah, we know. You can go."

Hehehe - and Amen! 😂😂😂

Then one of my neighbors in that building yelled down from her balcony "Yeah, Bye! Don't come back until you do your job right, on a Saturday night, towing people who don't even live here, instead of picking on poor old handicapped people who do!"

😂😂😂

Love her, she's hilarious!

The cops even stifled a laugh with that, because it's true.

My neighbors notified the apartment manager the next day, whose hands were tied from helping them get their car out of impound because the spot really isn't clearly marked and thus had no basis for argument based on two company rules - but you can bet it's on her work calendar to mark now!

The maintenance guy was actually mad this happened to them, that old sign isn't from current management, plus they didn't park there anyway, they parked in between -  and he's not there on a Saturday night fixing stuff anyway and doesn't care.😂

Because these are really nice people, very kind, no trouble at all, mostly older people. They were just mad he was picking on this old handicapped couple, who have both the required proof-of-residency and handicapped stickers/tag, when he should be towing off people who don't even live here instead!

Now - the situation in the below post was NOT racial, but it does show you how men can be just as Karenish as women, if not worse to call the police over nonsense.

And the guy from that post's entire point was she should be calling the police instead of asking who to call about her situation on Reddit as the "rational" thing to do.

Um - not always. And the moment she did that, she'd be labeled a Karen, guaranteed.