For a lot of folks, their car is their prized possession but even then, most of us don't like parking tickets. But not this Audi owner, who recently found himself in hot water for parking over two spaces.
Now, he's admitted that he'd rather get a fine than have 'a dent in his door'.
The Audi driver divided the internet when a picture of his car over two spots in Dee Why, Sydney, was posted online to shame him.
It was captioned: "One of the busiest beach days of the year and this a***hole parked like this."
Advert
The post subsequently racked up thousands of comments, with some people defending the driver's actions and others slamming him for being so selfish.
But now, the driver, who remains anonymous, has hit back at his critics via 7NEWS.com.au.
He explained that if he had just stuck to one space, he'd have been put into a tight spot with little room to even get out of his car.
The driver added that at the time he parked in the coastal town, the car park was only around 60 percent full and admitted that he didn't want to take a different spot because of mobility issues involving his knees.
"But honestly, I'd rather pay a few hundred dollars in parking fines to the council than get a dent in my door that would cost me $1000," he said.
"The council should really just make the car spots wider, rather than having them as the bare minimum size."
The original slam of the car took place on Reddit, where the picture was posted on 3 January.
One Reddit user joked that someone could still fit another car in the spot, writing: "Just take your lifted hilux down there and park it on top so that it's still two cars in two spots [sic]."
"Obviously spent all his money on the car and now can't afford the insurance," added a second viewer while a third described the car as a 'key magnet'.
A fourth, meanwhile, said that fines should be higher to deter people from parking like this.
"Behaviour like this needs to have more consequences than just a fine," they remarked. "A 200$ parking fine won't really be much of a concern to someone spending 300K on a car [sic]."
But not everyone was so critical, and one viewer said that they were simply confused by the driver's logic.
"I don't get the logic here," they wrote. "Presumably they're trying to avoid others opening doors into their car. But aren't they just begging passersby to do much worse?"
"If he paid for two bays, what can you do?" questioned a second while a third remarked: "To be fair, I've had assholes just slam their door open into my car (whilst I'm still in it). Still a d**k move but an understandable one."
What do you think?
Topics: News
Emma Guinness