Photo via u/quazziwazzi/Reddit
August 24, 2021, 11:44 am*
Video of a woman parking her car right in front of a neighbor’s driveway in retaliation for their parents temporarily parking in front of their house across the street (but not blocking the driveway) is going viral on Reddit’s “Public Freakout” forum for this highly unnecessary and rather public freakout. The woman, and another who appears to live in the house across from the baffled family, seems to have been under the incorrect assumption that because she owns the house, she also owns the sidewalk in front of it.
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The man filming argues correctly that it is perfectly legal for someone other than the homeowner to park in front of a house as long as it’s not blocking a driveway or something like a fire hydrant because sidewalks are public property. The family says that the car in front of the angry neighbor’s house belongs to their parents, who are there for just an hour-long visit. Undeterred, the woman who has been dubbed a “Karen” leaves her own vehicle blocking the family’s driveway just in front of their truck.
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“Is there a problem?” asks the man as the video starts.
“Yeah, move your car out of the way,” says Karen. “You can record me all you want, I don’t give a f—. Record me!”
The man again asks again what the issue is, and she repeatedly tells him to “shut up” rather than explain why she just parked her own car across his driveway.
“She’s upset because there’s a car parked here,” the man filming explains. “Last time I checked, this part, this is legal. She thinks that this is her parking area. So she decides to park in front of my house.”
The video then shows how the Karen’s car is completely blocking her neighbors’ driveway, making it impossible for their pickup truck to leave without driving on their own lawn or hitting her vehicle. She then walks away, threatening to call a tow truck, which we kind of hope she did because she would have been the one getting towed.
What follows is an argument over whether the homeowner owns the sidewalk in front of the house and is therefore entitled to police who gets to park there. Karen Sr. and Jr. are unambiguously in the wrong here, as across the U.S., sidewalks are considered public property and, within reason, people are allowed to park in front of other people’s houses on a temporary basis.
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“My parents are stopping by for like an hour!” the man filming shouts.
According to Reddit commenters, the state of California does not require cars to be parked a certain distance from stop signs, either, so this family literally did nothing wrong.
The confusion about who owns sidewalks is not an uncommon one. It’s such a frequent issue that one city in Maryland dedicated an entire page on their website to the issue, explaining that no, they cannot force your neighbors to move the car they parked in front of your house just because you don’t like it there.
“Since Public Roadways are just that, ‘public,’ no one has the right to reserve spaces in front of his or her house,” writes the Berwyn Heights Police Department.
Reddit commenters are, at least, largely aware of this, and many are asking for video of the tow truck that would have inevitably taken away the Karen’s car in a highly satisfying conclusion.
“Why argue? I’d just call the tow truck and/or cops and be done with it,” said one user.
“A neighbor did this to me once,” wrote another. “But he had the gall to park in my driveway and not just in front of it. He wouldn’t answer the door when I tried to speak with him. He sure as hell came out fast when the tow truck arrived though.”
*First Published: August 24, 2021, 11:43 am
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