Man parks car on stranger’s driveway then randomly walks away
Have you ever witnessed an act of utter cheek and not known what to do about it?
So did this man in Stockport, who was left baffled after a random person parked their 4x4 on his private driveway and simply walked off without a word.
Richard Bartley, 37, was stunned after an abandoned Volvo parked up on his drive, blocking his garage on 18 March at 10pm.
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However, it wasn’t a simple nip to the shops.
The car was left at the couple’s home all night until 19 March, when Richard decided something had to be done.
When he first saw the car after returning home from work at 11pm, Richard was confused and tried to investigate.
He told the Manchester Evening News: "We have a community WhatsApp group, I put a message out on that and said 'does anybody know who this is?'.
"Quite a few people have got CCTV, so we could identify what time it was. I had a look on my CCTV and saw the guy just reversed into the space, locked his car and walked away."
Thankfully, a neighbour was able to provide a CCTV clip of the car owner getting out of the Volvo before then getting into a silver car as a passenger and being driven away.
Unsure of whether the man would be returning for his car, he decided to call the police to remove it as it made his usual parking spaces inaccessible.
Richard said: "It's just a nightmare.
"All the neighbours just can't believe that somebody has parked on our private drive and then walked away."
Just when Richard was starting to despair, the driver returned and drove the car away around 9.30am this morning (19 March).
Richard said the driver 'just randomly returned' to pick the car up - but offered 'no apology' for parking the car up on his driveway all night.
The absolute cheek.
Richard was lucky the owner turned up to claim the car, as surprisingly if a randomer parks in your driveway there's very little you can do about it.
Jack Cousens, head of roads policy for the AA, explained to The Sun: "Because the offence of trespass is a civil matter the police cannot get involved, and as the vehicle is on private land the council cannot help either."
If the car appears abandoned and is in a dangerous condition, such as if it's leaking oil, the council will likely help - otherwise you're on your own.
You could pay a company to tow the vehicle, but that will set you back at least £100, and you'd be liable for any damage to the car during the towing too.
Cousens suggests: "A preventative measure would be to install a collapsible bollard on the driveway, but again this is an expense people should not have to part with."
Britt Jones