A man was forced to take a route that included taxis, buses, and even hitchhiking to get to his job after a ‘selfish’ driver parked their car across the drive for the entire day.
59-year-old Frank Mitchell works as a radio presenter in Belfast, but he was staying in Burren - not far from Newry - with his 93-year-old mother.
When he got up to head off to work, he discovered that a white Mercedes car had been parked right across the driveway, meaning that he had no chance of getting out in order to drive to work.
The U105 radio host couldn’t get a taxi to start with - it was 6:00am on Monday morning, to be fair - so had to hitch a lift with a passing motorist in order to start his journey into Belfast city centre.
Advert
He did eventually make it to work on time, but his whole day was spent trying to ‘chase’ taxis, as well as relying on public transport to run errands and get things done.
OK, so loads of people have to do that anyway, but if you have a car and just can’t drive it because someone has blocked you in 50 miles away, it must still be a bit annoying.
The car was parked right across the driveway, too.
In total, three cars were blocked in, unable to move.
Advert
Afterwards, Frank was told by a neighbour that a young woman had returned to the car at the end of the day, but apparently showed little remorse when the neighbour tried to speak to her about it.
Frank said: "I would just describe it as a perfect example of selfishness and idiocy.
"There were three cars in the driveway and no one could get out.
"When the lady returned to the white Mercedes, luckily someone in the vicinity was able to speak to her and tell her about the inconvenience she had caused.
Advert
"She apologised but the young woman, who was about 25, could not comprehend that she was inconveniencing people.
"The driver of the car only seemed aware of the fact that she needed somewhere to park."
The ‘idiotic’ driver was not a neighbour of Frank’s mum, but parked there to get picked up by someone else and didn’t return for eight hours.
While this is just an inconvenience, Frank did say that it could have been really bad if his mother had an appointment at the hospital or if there had been an emergency.
Advert
He said: "I live and work in Belfast, but my mum is 93 so I was staying to look after her about 50 miles away in Burren.
"Luckily enough I didn't miss anything serious that day but more worryingly for me would have been if my mother was needing to go to a hospital appointment.
"She has regular appointments at the hospital and we wouldn't have been able to get there as we were blocked in.
"That was the most obvious example of how it could have been more serious.
"I managed to be on time for my work but the rest of the day I had to use taxis and public transport to do my job.
Advert
"The 'minor inconvenience' was immense because I had to use public transport that day to get around and go out of my way and drive 50 miles the next day to pick up my car."
After he shared the pics online, people were quick to validate his anger, with one writing: "Get it towed."
Another said: "I'm sure a local farmer could have got that shifted in no time.”
A third wrote: "Get that pushed out of the way and left in the middle of the road."
Tom Wood