you try to help someone and it back fires

[matefrio]

Learned a lesson like this in High School. Figured out then if I was going to talk about someone might as well be to their face, cutting out the middle man.

 

[benenglish]

Driveway owner needs to drive up in the middle of the night unexpectedly, find the truck there, Gee WTF did that come from?, call Po-Po and tow truck. Have it hauled away.

I don't understand the hesitation to tow in the OP case. If I'm house-sitting for someone and a vehicle shows up without authorization, I have no problem calling it in. Of course, when I house-sit (and it's only been a couple of times during hurricanes) I get a short note signed by the neighbor saying they give me authority over the property in their absence.

Slightly different situation, but when I moved into my current house I had a problem. I arrived on moving day to find that the moving truck couldn't get into the driveway because a car was parked there. I checked with the neighbors; none of them claimed it. This one was a rental, so I called the number on the window sticker and asked them about it. It was overdue. They tried to contact the renter, failed, called me back, and advised me that they'd come pick up the vehicle immediately.

The rental company pick up crew and the renter arrived at the same time. The renter got stuck with a bunch of extra fees for not extending his rental contract (How irresponsible can you be? Seriously, some people...) The car got removed. And the poor movers had already carried everything up the front walk the long way.

Nobody was happy with the resolution except me; now I could park in my own driveway.

I consider this a very basic rule of courtesy. You don't park where you're not supposed to.

I've seen it and I can deal with it but I still don't fully understand the origin of the mindset of some people who consider themselves above simple courtesy. I don't care how far I have to walk, I'm not parking in your driveway without permission. Folks who would, well, I don't understand how their minds got that way.