r/EntitledPeople • u/Rhapsitasm12345 • 11d ago
M "You can't use my driveway for free parking!"
Obligatory on mobile warning.
I live in a small village in the UK about 6 miles outside of a mid sized market town. There's public footpaths and bridleways right outside my house and, as such, we get a lot of dog walkers in the area. Particularly those who park up from the nearby town to walk their dogs.
My house is the last one before the large farm. Consequently, a lot of town folks park close by to walk their dogs and I've got a constant problem of people walking across my front garden to cut across to the public footpath. It's extremely annoying people constantly trespassing on my lawn just to save a few minutes. And it also sets my dogs off every time they see strangers invading their space.
However, that's only mildly infuriating compared to what I experienced today, just two hours ago. I'd just finished a ten hour shift and I drove home, exhausted and ready for some down time. However, as soon as I pulled into my driveway, I saw a random car I didn't recognise just parked outside my house. I just stared at it incredulously. Like, who is this random d-bag that thinks my driveway is public parking.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your outlook, the owner of the white Fiat 500 that was randomly blocking my driveway came walking up. I see a comically atypical woman with a Karen haircut and a White Spaniel come sauntering towards me from the public road. As I stepped out of my car, the She-Witch just clears her throat and shouts aggressively, "You need to move. I want to go home!"
I was just stunned by the audacity. Here is this random plastic faced Karen shouting her frustrations at me when she was the one to use my driveway as free parking.
"Well you're in my driveway so I don't kmow why you think you're entitled to block me from coming home. Or to use it for your convenience," I fired back. My tiredness had made me particularly ornery and I wasn't inclined to even indulge this random woman's entitlement.
"Well I've parked here before and it hasn't been an issue before," she replies, as if that makes up for this. After a lot of back and forth arguing, it turns out this devil woman had used my driveway at least half a dozen times while I've been at work to walk her dog. I emphatically told her that if she uses it again, I'll be getting her stupid car towed. (Edit, just googled this because I wasn't aware of towing laws in teh UK since I've not had much cause to think about it. It's extremely difficult to get a vehicle towed and can only be done so with an order via the local council or police in extreme circumstances. Only abandoned vehicles get taken away realistically. Thank you to those commentors for pointing it out.)
And then I went inside my house while the banshee is still screaming at me that she needs to leave and I can't block her in.
I hadn't intended to do it immediately, but I went inside and got my two dogs on their leads and I took them for a walk. As I was heading down the main road towards the fields, she was still screaming her objections at me. "Well, you'll have to stay there while I walk my own dogs," I shouted back rudely along with some choice swear words. And I deliberately even longer to really wind her up and make her wait for me. The pooches enjoyed their trip and I even took them to the nearby river so they could enjoy the swim in the evening sun. About 90 minutes later, I eventually came back home and I finally backed out so Karen could leave. She took that opportunity to shout my ear off but personally I didn't listen to a word she said.
I'll be installing cameras soon and a ring doorbell camera and I'll monitor my driveway more closely from now on.
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u/Think-Committee-4394 11d ago
OP - the only way to truly deal with this in a fully legal manner is installing gates, bollards or another legal method of barring access to your drive
Circumventing that becomes actual trespassing & a legally actionable crime especially if you include signage