In London, parking spaces sell for over 250,000 euros, so naturally, protecting your space or parking rights is an important matter.

When I got home, I discovered that someone had parked their Porsche 911 in my parking space.

The conversation unfolded as follows:

Me: “This is my parking space, can you move your car?”

Him: “Not really. I used to live on this street and I know you don’t actually own your parking spaces, so I’m going to park here from now on. The police won’t do anything because it’s a private street.”

Me: “Okay, we’ll do this the hard way then.”

I parked my motorcycle about 15 centimeters from its rear bumper, engaged the disc lock, put a huge chain around the rear wheel, and activated the alarm and immobilizer. Then I went back inside the house.

A few hours later, there was a knock at my front door:

The lackey: “My boss has to go out, would you mind moving your motorcycle?”

Me: “Of course, no problem.”

A long, truly uncomfortable silence followed as I stared at him and he began to shift his weight from one foot to the other.

The lackey: “Can you move it now?”

Me: “No.”

Him: “When can you move it?”

Me: “Wednesday.”

Him: “Wednesday?”

Me: “Yes, Wednesday. That’s when I’ll be using my motorcycle again. It would be a good time for him to move his car.”

Him: “He’s going to call the police.”

Me: “He can do it, yes, but, as he said, it’s a private road and they don’t care. He’ll have to wait until Wednesday to get it out. And, if using his car is important to him, he’d be better off parking somewhere else in the future.”

I waited until Wednesday to move my motorcycle and let it out.

He moved the car.

And never parked there again.

And everyone lived happily ever after…

Thanks for reading.