Photo: Twitter/@ponkuz
national

Shop owner finds effort-free, cold-as-ice way to punish illegally parked car

21 Comments
By Casey Baseel, SoraNews24

Dealing with an illegally parked car can be a huge pain. Option 1 is to spend the time to contact the authorities, wait for a tow truck to show up, and show the driver where the offending car is so it can finally be hauled away. If you don’t want to go through all that hassle, you can just ignore the car until the owner finally comes back and removes it, but by doing nothing, you’re implicitly inviting the owner to do the same thing again in the future.

However, one clever store in Japan figured out a way to do nothing and still punish offenders. Like at most supermarkets, the parking lot of the Across Plaza in Fukui Prefecture’s Echizen is for customers only. That didn’t stop one driver who wasn’t doing any shopping there from leaving their car in the parking lot anyway, though. But rather than call the cops, the store’s staff decided to do nothing…including not clearing out any of the snow that had fallen around the car while it was illegally parked.

▼ “Looks like this car was illegally parked at the supermarket, so they enforced the parking rules in a very snowy region way,” tweeted @ponkuz along with the photo above.

Like much of Japan, Fukui has had incredibly cold temperatures over the last few days, and a heavy snowfall meant Across Plaza had to clear thick banks of slush out of its parking lot…which it did, except for around the offending automobile.

Online reactions included:

“What an elegant punishment.”

“That’s a dynamic way of dealing with the situation.”

“I think they should have just thrown the car into whatever ditch they piled the rest of the snow.”

“Term of imprisonment: until the snow melts.”

“Eh, if you live in a place that gets like this in the winter, you’ve probably got access to a snow shovel and can dig your way out.”

While it’s unclear whether or not a shovel was used, the car did in fact manage to escape its icy prison. The above photo was taken slightly before noon on Sunday, and later that night, a little after midnight, another Twitter user shared this snapshot.

DTg_f0qU0AE0F8T.jpg
Photo: @2hphp

But whether the driver used a shovel or plowed through the snow, he’ll probably think twice about leaving his car parked in that particular lot again.

Source: Twitter/@ponkuz via Jin

Read more stories from SoraNews24.

-- Town in Hiroshima now offering exciting… snow-shovelling tours?

-- Japanese convenience store demands ransom from owner of car parked illegally in its lot

-- Driver struck by another vehicle in the wrong lane, still ordered to pay 40 million yen

© SoraNews24

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

21 Comments
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I wish articles would stop quoting twitter posts in articles.

11 ( +13 / -2 )

Gotta love it!

7 ( +8 / -1 )

although fun, I dont see how calling cops is hard... that is literally their job

Obviously said by someone who has little experience in dealing with Japanese police in these situations.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

Doubt if the person will think twice about parking there again. Not much snow in August, I think.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Awesome! I hate illegal parking, and I've said it before, if cops fined people for illegally parking they could turn Japan's debt into profit overnight. And people who simply flip on their hazard lights (not knowing what it means, clearly) or put a sign on their dashboard allowing themselves to park anywhere they like. It should be far easier to deal with illegal parking.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

If it is cold enough, pour water over it and let it freezes.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

There’s a Aeon supermarket near a busy station that has about 16 parking spaces of which people often take advantage. They finally had to convert it to a pay parking lot and all the spots have had risers put in.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Fun story but didn't solve the problem did it. They still lost the use of the space. If anything the driver may be so p'd off that he may try getting his own back in some way or another.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

StrangerlandToday  03:17 pm JST

I wish articles would stop quoting twitter posts in articles.

Everyone can be a journalist, get a twitter account and recycle garbage. Hey, they don't even get cold.. Journalism going down the pan

0 ( +0 / -0 )

twitter-tards seriously have time on their hands

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I have dealt in these situation with Japanese police as a land owner, its very easy to call the cops saying a car is parked illegally on my land... driver gets points taken or worse.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

oh and civil offences, such as illegal parking and tresspassing should definitely result in prison

0 ( +0 / -0 )

AEON is a private land owner or renter , you need to read up on property laws amongst other things that we already established that you dont know.

as to the second part, what is wrong with punishment to tresspassers and illegal parking? Large prohibitive fines ( 10th of thousands of dollars worth ) and jail time ( for personal reflection ) or community service will be an amazing deterrent , the roads will be much easier to drive and walk ,traffic will be smoother and less people will drive which will be an ecological benefit... explain to me how is that wrong again?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@ Alex Wonder if you know the difference between a private land owner and AEON, oh and the two are most definitely not one and the same.

And if illegal parking and trespassing resulted in a prison term here, just about everyone who has ever, or will ever own a vehicle will end up in the clink! Not a really thought out idea huh?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

 I hate illegal parking, and I've said it before, if cops fined people for illegally parking they could turn Japan's debt into profit overnight. 

Na, the money would just go to the cops "End of year" party fund! Many eons ago I got towed, and it cost me over 30,000円 to get my car back. Learned a lesson there.

It is very difficult to get the police to tow a car from a private/store parking lot, sign must be posted, about illegal parking. Even AEON can not have illegally parked cars towed from their parking structures attached to their department stores here. The best they can do is put a tire lock on and wait for the owner to collect the vehicle. Often times, folks who rent cars here, leave their cars parked in the lot, abandon them, jump on the monorail and leave the country., The rental car companies end up footing the bill.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Bungle:

Some breaches that you would think would be civil offences are in fact criminal offences. For example, a private individual violating the copyright of another private individual or company is not a civil offence, but a criminal as there can be imprisonment. That just blows my mind. It should be civil and fines if found guilty, not prison.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

I park there once a month. I hope my car will be safe.

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

although fun, I dont see how calling cops is hard... that is literally their job

-7 ( +2 / -9 )

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