Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Take me out to the ball game...

Yep, I went to the ball game this evening, Jays vs the Oriols, not exactly going for the title, but it was a good game nonetheless, especially since the good guys won, and we got a home run in the 9th with a guy on first and second.  Nice way to end the evening.

The odd thing though was parking.

I drove down, which seems a might mad, but I had some reasons other than a passion for sitting in traffic.  When it came to park I came to a favourable looking lot, and turned to go in, but couldn't.  The two guys, you know, parking lot guys on game night, you know the kind.  Lord only knows where they go for the rest of the time, maybe they're the same guys who squeegy your windscreen at red lights.  Anyway, the guys wave me around the corner.

The parking places they are heading us for are the private, heavily sign posted NO PARKING private spots of a small office building.  Ummmmm.

They directed me into a spot, wanted ten bucks and gave me a little yellow slip of paper to put in the car.

Really,  these guys looked totally seedy.

I asked them if this was legal, the convincing part was when one of them said there were much better ways to steal than stand around in the rain for ten bucks a car.

Solid point.

I left the car.

What was interesting to me was that I had considerable misgivings about parking the car there.  Even when they asked me to wait while another woman parked, I had ample time to leave.  The first spot the directed me to I didn't fit in, again, I nearly left.  What I again find odd is that I didn't.

Eventually I left the car, parked in a very marginal place legally and next to a totally seeding park.  Not a super safe place to return to - granted that as the game came out, I knew there would be TONS of people around for that short period of time anyway.

Why then did I leave the car?  I certainly had no reason to trust these guys, all my instincts were singing out that it was a bad idea, I figured it was a 50 − 50 chance the car would be towed, and still I parked it there.

It was oddly conflicting.  They guys were good at it.  They were brusque and efficient, while still being humourous and just convincing enough; but I owed them NOTHING, and had a fair amount to loose if they were scamming me, not just the money for parking, but the cost of the tow and the hassle.

It wasn't politeness so much, though that was an element, it was partially that they were working so hard at it, and were fairly efficient, they gave (barely) credible responses to my questions - stating that they worked for the building who were making a little money on the side on game night - and commented to each other that they had to keep certain spaces open for people working there, and called a spade a spade when I asked about legality - stating straight out there were better ways to steal.

Still, I remain amazed that I parked the car there against all my warning signals.  I am not overly polite (though I am Canadian) , I owed them nothing, they would not have suffered in any way if I left, there was a line of cars coming in for the space, there were plenty of other spaces....so why?

Something to ponder over for the next little bit.

Oh, and the car didn't get towed.

5 comments:

elpadawan said...

I remember the game nights full of cars and "parkers" everywhere. Those parking guys always seemed suspicious to me, I think I'd rather park further away and take a streetcar/subway to the arena.
Also: have you heard about the ban on corridas that just got voted in your home region?

Boo and Trev said...

OOer! That's all rather Milgram experiment. Know what you mean though - it is strange how you will actually ignore your your common sense voice. Still it all worked out OK

dawn said...

Very interesting post. I kept reading and reading thinking something was going to happen to the car. Glad it was okay. I wonder too at things when "I had a feeling" and things go bad, why didn't I go with the gut. But then the gut isn't always right.

J.G. said...

Funny how we ignore that inner voice sometimes. I probably would have done the same thing, though I'd have been more worried about the hassle of being towed than about the car being broken into. (One plus of having a dull car.)

Glad you enjoyed the game!

oreneta said...

ElP, I wonder where those parking guys go...yeah, the Catalans getting a good firm dig into the Spanish who just pulled back a lot of governmental rights from the province. They are not best pleased.

Alarmingly Milgramish, except they are such a weak authority I am not sure that's what it was.

Dawn, so was I...fingers crossed as I came round the corner....

JG, I wasn't worried about it being broken into, it's TO, that doesn't really happen that much, it was the tow....