I Got Towed

WARNING:

Do not park in the parking lot of the campus McDonald's on High St. and 17th, unless you really are going to McDonald's.

This evening, I made the mistake of parking in that lot to run to Subway. Now, there is a HUGE sign that warns people will be towed if they leave their vehicle in that lot and are not patronizing McDonald's -- in plain English -- and it clearly says enforced 24 hours a day.

It was my own fault, of course I know this, because I chose to ignore the sign. I decided to go on past experience, which told me that I wouldn't get towed since it had never happened before. Wrong!

Weird thing is, my gut told me not to park there at that moment. For some reason, I just had a feeling I'd get towed. It might be because I saw there was a guy sitting in a parked suburban SUV in the corner of the lot. I thought that was a little odd, and had never seen anyone doing that before in that parking lot. But the dude was yakking on his cell, so I thought he was just waiting for someone to come out of the McDonald's. Strangely, I even had a thought for a split second, that he might be someone associated with the towing company, like a spy or something. That seemed a bit too paranoid, so I ignored that instinct.

Plus, I reasoned that it wouldn't take very long to get my subs...how would a tow truck find my car, hook it up and tow it all in that short of a time frame, I figrued? Right? No. In the time it takes to make a couple of subs at Subway, and run to the ATM two doors down, your car can get towed.

But the ironic thing about this was that when I came back to discover my car was gone, the guy sitting in the dark, parked car walked over and told me my car was towed, why it was towed, and that he worked for CamCar, the towing company. He even said he'd give me a ride to go get my car (creepy) if I needed it. He WAS a towing company spy! The sign wasn't lying when it said "enforced 24 hours a day." Take heed folks, unless you feel like throwing $140 down the drain just like that.

Photo courtesy of Eric Faller, ericfaller.com (and that is not my car or my neighborhood, btw), and sign photo is courtesy of signsaustin.com