One day, says Nancy in Arizona, her dad was getting in his car during his lunch break from Lowe’s (the home-improvement big-box store), when he found this note tucked into his door frame.
“He was surprised,” Nancy says, but instead of taking the contrarian approach, dear old Dad decided to humor the person and move his car one spot over. At the end of the day, he actually got a glimpse of the notewriter — a “rather old lady” who works as the store’s phone operator.
“We spent a lot of time discussing her possible reasons for wanting that specific parking spot back,” Nancy says — especially given that it doesn’t seem to have any particular advantage over the other 500 or so spots in the lot — but in the end, they just had to laugh.
related: I’m gonna say this in the nicest way possible: don’t park in my spot.
116 responses so far ↓
#1
fuzzbutt
i once yelled at some guy at a barry manilow concert when he complained i parked too close to the line (in my space mind you) that he was lucky i wasn’t a guy or else i would piss on him. She is lucky i didn’t get this note!
Jan 12, 2011 at 7:31 pm rating: 4
#2
Julie
Mmm…That note really hits the spot.
Jan 12, 2011 at 7:34 pm rating: 3
#3
FeRD
In situations like this, I admit there’s a small, dark part of me that just wants to be mean and say, “…No matter. She’ll be dead soon.”
Jan 12, 2011 at 7:34 pm rating: 44
#4
Liz
It’s clearly the Best Spot In the Lot!
Jan 12, 2011 at 7:36 pm rating: 7
#5
Canthz_B
Seems to me she has plenty of spaces…between her ears.
Jan 12, 2011 at 7:44 pm rating: 10
#6
bec
Sounds like she has an obsessive compulsive disorder. If she has parked in the same spot since 2002 & it is not marked in any way I wonder just how many notes she has had to write in all that time, she may just be the queen of passive aggressive notes.
Jan 12, 2011 at 8:01 pm rating: 25
#7
Canthz_B
I’m betting she still has a profile on Myspace.
Probably has pics of her space posted there.
Jan 12, 2011 at 8:06 pm rating: 15
#8
liddy
As I get older and older (50 and beyond) I am gaining a fuller appreciation for the need for routine , mostly I find due to memory issues.
Jan 12, 2011 at 8:09 pm rating: 7
#9
Cathryn Bauer
I’d be so tempted to rent a cement truck and leave it in that spot for 24 hours. With hidden cameras.
Jan 12, 2011 at 8:17 pm rating: 10
#10
Al Penwasser
I’m glad I discovered this site. It reminds me of a note I saw when I was with the Navy in the Azores in 1987. One night, while on the midnight shift in our aircraft hangar, I was walking back to the office from the bathroom. I noticed a lump in the dark. As I approached it, I realized it was a dead pigeon (they were EVERYwhere!). I walked up to it and saw a little yellow note wedged underneath its body. It said, “Please leave a wake-up call for 6:30. Sincerely, A. Pigeon.” It wasn’t Passive-Aggressive, but it cracked me up!
Jan 12, 2011 at 8:18 pm rating: 28
#11
JetJackson
I thought monogamous parking was a thing of the past.
Jan 12, 2011 at 9:01 pm rating: 9
#12
WMDKitty
Holy hell, it’s just a parking space. Parking is, and will always be, first-come-first-pick. Old lady needs to get the damn stick out of her ass, and PARK ELSEWHERE.
Jan 12, 2011 at 11:33 pm rating: 3
#13
Odious
I would have told her “OK, that’s cool, let me check with management, though, first, to find out where my assigned space is.” Just to see her reaction.
Jan 13, 2011 at 12:46 am rating: 13
#14
Graham
Once worked a place where half the staff had ‘their’ parking spots. An office move was planned which meant transferring to a new building 50 yards away. The old farts refused to move because there wasn’t enough parking spaces next to the new building and they would (shock, horror) actually have to walk the extra 50 yards.
Jan 13, 2011 at 2:26 am rating: 5
#15
Divvitar
Poor woman must live there if she’s been parked in that spot since 2002. Probably went to buy some groceries for lunch to cook up in the kitchen aisle, before retiring to the patio furniture for the afternoon.
Jan 13, 2011 at 2:45 am rating: 15
#16
Nahhh
Oh, it STARTS with the parking spot. Next thing you know, they’re stealing your booth at the diner. Then you can’t get an appointment with YOUR hairdresser on YOUR day. Within weeks, your doctor’s never even HEARD of you! So you gotta nip it in the bud, or all HELL will break loose. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Now, give me back MY computer terminal, if you don’t mind.
Jan 13, 2011 at 7:19 am rating: 19
#17
Le lac
He should take it one step further and create a sign for her space with her name on it and the words “Since 2002″. Lowe’s has all the stuff he’d need to do it. Then, it can really be “her spot” and he will triumph in his passive-aggressive reply to her note.
Jan 13, 2011 at 8:47 am rating: 18
#18
Kristin
Maybe it’s just me, but if I received a note like that, I’d be sure to take that parking spot every time it was available!
Jan 13, 2011 at 9:38 am rating: 10
#19
Harmy G
I despise those who use “tradition” or “status quo” to justify something.
Jan 13, 2011 at 9:50 am rating: 2
#20
neurotic notes
I have a neighbour like this. Good to know I’m not alone.
Jan 13, 2011 at 12:16 pm rating: 0
#21
April
No way would I move my car. Finders keepers. If you want that spot you better get their early bitch.
Jan 13, 2011 at 12:29 pm rating: 2
#22
divaandwriter
“I’ve parked here since 2002.”
Well, don’t you think it’s time for a change? Why not add a little excitement to your life! Park in the next spot over!
Jan 13, 2011 at 1:21 pm rating: 4
#23
GhostWriter
A handwritten-note, courteously requesting that you move your car, using “if you don’t mind” and “thank you“? Pretty Tame.
If you want to see a real feud, try sitting in another family’s claimed pew at a Sunday Catholic mass.
Jan 13, 2011 at 1:22 pm rating: 7
#24
fingers
Your Dad sounds like a great guy! Good for him
Jan 13, 2011 at 2:10 pm rating: 4
#25
sdeditor
Well, in fairness to the woman, she wasn’t nasty about it or anything. All the other Lowe’s employees probably know about her little eccentricity and indulge her in it. If that’s the case, I think it’s kind of sweet that her coworkers do that for her. It’s much better than the pointless bickering – usually over nothing – that goes on at most workplaces.
Jan 13, 2011 at 6:22 pm rating: 3
#26
Sara
I probably would have kept parking in that spot just to play with her.
Jan 13, 2011 at 9:33 pm rating: 0
#27
Frosty
I work at a Lowe’s myself (albeit up in Montana), but the hella old folks I work with are just like this, if you do anything even remotely outside of their rigid set patterns, they jump up your ass and bitch endlessly until they get their way, it’s such a pain in the ass.
Jan 13, 2011 at 11:32 pm rating: 3
#28
havingfitz
As someone with mild OCD I can be a bit sympathetic. A few weeks ago a pregnant coworker of mine stole the chair I’d been using for six months and left me a broken on in its place because ‘mine was more comfortable’ and she felt that being pregnant entitled her to it. I was livid. Took it right back when her pregnant behind went home for the day. Came in the next day and another coworker had slapped a sign on the back that read “This is (havingfitzs) chair. If you take it you are a bad person!” It’s okay, OCD Old Lady. We few, we happy few. We band of buggy.
Jan 14, 2011 at 8:15 am rating: 11
#29
Ashley
Perhaps she forgets her parking spot otherwise?
I park in the same spot at work and so does my friend. We are also the only two people that park where we are supposed to and not in customer parking as well.
I get annoyed if someone is in my spot (which has only happened maybe twice), I like familiarity.
I wonder how many days he parked there to deserve a note?
Jan 15, 2011 at 1:48 pm rating: 0
#30
Penny
It’s not OCD you guys, it’ just old people don’t like change- EVER. Even when they die they’re only uphappy about it because it changes their routine. Don’t think they’re not trying to still sit down to dinner at 5 when all the other angels are just getting off work.
Once an old person has done something similar for a week (even if it’s not every day) then it becomes routine and woe-be-tide anyone who tries to change that. Parking there since 2002 would in her mind mean she practically owns that space.
Feb 10, 2011 at 8:12 am rating: 0
Comments are Closed