A Man Keeps Putting My Wipers up at My Car Park

km2g on 24/12/2023 - 11:41
Last edited 24/12/2023 - 18:19 by 1 other user

I have been parking at a carpark spot for about 8 years. It is a car park for residents nearby and also for certain businesses for work. I am a resident.

Recently there is a guy who keeps putting my wipers up every time he gets his car as well. He also parks nearby my car park spot. I think he works around the area because he wears a uniform, and I can tell from the time he comes and goes. I don't know what his problem is. My dashcam has caught him putting my wipers up on 3 separate occasions. He walks up to my car, puts wipers up then walks away, nothing else. Only does it to my car. I don't think he knows I have a dashcam recording him on parking mode.

What should I do?

Poll Options

  • 353
    Confront him privately when he gets his car and find out what his problem is.
  • 62
    Go to his workplace and complain to his work that he keeps doing this to my car.
  • 7
    Park somewhere else.
  • 26
    Report to the police.
  • 7
    Keep quiet. Only reveal I have dashcam recording him when he does real damage to my car.
  • 14
    Others, please comment.
  • 47
    Note with screenshot on my windscreen. (added after reading comments)
Automotive

Comments

  • Shoocat on 24/12/2023 - 11:53
    +50

    A first step, put a polite note on your windscreen asking the person doing that to please stop.

    Might resolve it without escalating..

      • SpainKing on 24/12/2023 - 14:58
        +25

        I don't know why you spend so much time in the forums when all you do is complain about threads being created and accuse them of being troll posts

          • Diji on 25/12/2023 - 22:10
            +11

            @Protractor: What's your angle mate?

            • R-Man on 27/12/2023 - 15:07
              +4

              @Diji: Underrated comment🤝🏻

        • Randolph Duke on 25/12/2023 - 08:31
          +2

          Wonder sometimes whether it’s SlavOz been a nuisance

    • Scrooge McDuck on 24/12/2023 - 17:47
      +1

      I think it's better to approach them in person so that two way communication is possible. We don't know their reasoning. They may believe that OP is doing something wrong. In that case, asking them to stop doesn't resolve the underlying cause of the conflict.

      • whiskeyjack89 on 24/12/2023 - 23:48
        +4

        Yeah but you cant really just wait around your car for some random amount of time waiting for a random guy. A note does the job. They can write a note back.

        • Ajeje Brazorf on 25/12/2023 - 07:39
          +12

          You could sleep/hide in the back seat and jump out when he does. They fright alone will suffice

    • drewbytes on 25/12/2023 - 07:09
      +21

      If you know his car, put a note on that instead. He's less likely to do it IMO if you also know which car is his, he might fear retaliation.

    • yokel on 25/12/2023 - 07:37
      +1

      Leave a message on the wiper arm. Use a label maker.

    • HeWhoKnows on 25/12/2023 - 11:01
      -5

      Obviously the fellow has an issue with OP.
      People don't do this for no reason.
      Furthermore, these posts are always one-sided and the poster always claims innocence.
      You never hear the other side.
      Maybe OP shouldn't be parking there or has done something to offend this person
      We dont know.?

      So the short answer is:
      no damage being done, just a minor inconvenience
      Park elsewhere!

    • Kranbone on 25/12/2023 - 12:50
      +3

      I'd leave a note asking him to clean the windshield lol

      (In all seriousness, polite note is the way to go, the guy probably things the OP wronged him somehow)

  • AustriaBargain on 24/12/2023 - 11:56
    +19

    In Soviet Russia people would leave their wipers up, because they'd take the rubber strips out and carry them with them after parking, as people would steal them due to massive resource shortages.

  • jphilsousa on 24/12/2023 - 11:59
    +1

    Where I come from in the northern U.S., we did that to keep the wipers from freezing to the windshield in the winter. Probably not as much of an issue here but might keep the blades from deforming with the heat??

  • c64 on 24/12/2023 - 12:00
    +15

    did he clean your windscreen as well?

  • subywagon on 24/12/2023 - 12:02
    +19

    You forgot the bikies option…

  • GordonD on 24/12/2023 - 12:03
    +41

    Ask yourself why someone would be doing that. If he's wearing a uniform he could be security or an employee of one of the businesses who perhaps think that the carpark is there for their employees and their customers, not for local residents who should have their own parking.

    He's not doing any damage. He's clearly trying to flag something. Perhaps its that he sees your car there day after day and wants to see if its being moved, because of course when you come back to it you always put the wipers back down.

    • mskeggs on 24/12/2023 - 12:35
      +3

      Good theory.

    • banana365 on 24/12/2023 - 15:05
      +28

      He's clearly trying to flag something.

      Not very effectively. It's happened three times and it never crossed his mind to be a little less obscure in his message, you know, like maybe leaving a note? He could be as precise as he wanted then. Otherwise it just comes across as someone being a dick.

      • GordonD on 24/12/2023 - 16:24
        +5

        No, I'm not saying he's trying to send a message to the OP. He's flagging something to himself. He doesn't know it belongs to a resident. If it was a customer or shop employee it would come and go on a regular schedule. But the OP's car is there at all hours. He's making sure it isn't dumped/abandoned/stolen/whatever.

        If he wears a uniform, and both residents and shoppers and business staff can park there, its presumably council property. And he may well be a council security person. The way to trick him is to leave the wipers up whenever you park there. Of course the consequences of that is that it might get towed away.

        • John Kimble on 24/12/2023 - 16:35
          +11

          But why does he keep doing it then? Wouldn't they have gotten their answer after the first or second time?

        • km2g on 24/12/2023 - 17:28
          +8

          He has done this 3 times in a span of 2 to 3 weeks. If i had parked in the wrong spot for the past 8 years, I would rather he put a note on my windscreen telling me that. Otherwise, what he is doing really is a dick move.

          • MontyMacaw on 24/12/2023 - 20:29
            +41

            @km2g: Maybe the notes keep blowing away because the wipers are up?

          • MrFrugalSpend on 26/12/2023 - 02:02
            +9

            @km2g: I agree he should do that, and it may yet be coming, but what is interesting is how you describe the parking spot with a bit of uncertainty and ambiguity: "It is a car park for residents nearby and also for certain businesses for work." This would be a very unlikely situation, usually carparks would either be:
            1. Council controlled where there would be very specific signed rules;
            2. Private where people pay fees or rent to park;
            3. On your property / access rights to your property specifically with by-laws or similar that control parking entitlements; or
            4. Private land for businesses with agreement to use them.

            …and in almost all situations people's rights or rules are pretty clearly known if you are a party actually allowed to park there. Perhaps you do know these rules with certainty, perhaps you aren't sure? …. If not, I just comment that this uncertain mix of residents nearby and certain businesses would be an unusual situation. I speak with experience that just because you have gotten away with parking somewhere for a long period of time doesn't mean it is right, so he may be scoping out what your parking patterns are to work out who's car it is and decide what to do to alert you about the rules.

            I had to deal with a similar situation. My employer owned a future development site for 5-6 years that people parked all over for all those years. It was just a private block of land, nobody had any specific rights to use it. Informally, neighbouring businesses approached him etc for permission to park a few cars there from time to time and he was fairly accommodating but no one ever paid for it - He was just being neighbourly. Others just copied without permission. Once there was a temporary road work situation slightly further afield where extra people asked if they could park there whilst their normal park / access was temporarily inaccessible. The roadworks were finished in a few weeks, but several YEARS later many people were still parking there and got away with it. It became quite an eyebrow raiser how entitled people thought they were to parking on private land they had absolutely no title or interest in and didn't pay for! People started even putting up reserved signs with regos and business names / addresses on the block / fence so the regulars all knew where to park to avoid conflict with each other and to keep casual parkers out. Someone even arranged a "Private Carpark - Reserved Spaces only" sign for the entry, despite having zero interest in the land. This continued for years.

            Then one day we started doing works in the area, so a manager of mine and I drove to the site in his car and parked in an available spot a few times. We got double parked in one time, and on another we encountered a man scribbling an angry note and putting it under my manager's car's windscreen wiper when we went back to the car….. "Don't even think about it" my manager snapped at him when he saw what he was doing. A conversation ensued about why this man thought he was entitled to the parking spot, it was explained to him it was our private land, and we made the call then that because we kept having issues parking there and, in a few months, needed it cleared out anyway (to make way for a multi-storey apartment hotel), we would start leaving notes advising people they had to move on. We had to circulate letters to neghbouring properties giving notice to 'terminate' any informal permissions (despite nothing documented anyway), and leave notes on cars and gave people like a month to stop parking there. We left contact details and had a few people call up quite shocked because someone at their work said they could park there (e.g. before they left the company like 3 years prior etc etc)…. It always amazed me how it morphed into this little community of people who had no idea who's land it was, or what the arrangements were really, but because they had parked there for years for work or living nearby or whatever their cases were, they had become somewhat entitled and sure of themselves regarding it.

            It was such a time-consuming process with people being rude to us when revoked, and I discussed it with some others in the industry who had similar stories (…plus Council don't really like it, they sent us a warning notice regarding another block about running a commercial carpark without planning consent, to which we had to explain we weren't - we made no money from it and people just parked there in many cases without permission, and so they forced us to clear it out and sign it No Parking for that one too) - so we've started copying many other developer / land owners now and all vacant blocks of land or disused private carparks get fenced off / no parking signs…. Sad we can't help out, but necessary to avoid unwinding the mess in future.

            I don't know what your situation is, but if you aren't already, you should probably get clear on who's land it is and whether you can actually park there!

          • Hangryuman on 26/12/2023 - 13:17

            @km2g: Otherwise, what you are assuming is that what he is doing really is a dick move.

            Don't assume - it makes an ass out of u and me …

        • Franc-T on 26/12/2023 - 16:03

          Also its not his property he should be leaving it the (profanity) alone

      • Scrooge McDuck on 24/12/2023 - 17:52
        +9

        It's happened three times and it never crossed his mind to be a little less obscure in his message,

        Moving someone's wipers is a sign of great affection amongst the Kekistani people.

  • barge-in hunter on 24/12/2023 - 12:12
    +44

    Plot twist - OP has been (accidentally?) parking in someone else’s spot for the past 8 years

    • CarpeDiem295 on 24/12/2023 - 20:23
      +10

      He got a poll going and th3y say to put the wipers up

  • KSMLJ on 24/12/2023 - 12:13
    +8

    A man needs a name.

    • Protractor on 24/12/2023 - 13:28
      -4

      He should be called THE MAN, cos he's got the OP spooked

    • KangaDrew on 24/12/2023 - 14:51
      +12

      A man has no name.

      • Protractor on 24/12/2023 - 15:05
        +2

        Nor has a horse crossing the desert.

        • MontyMacaw on 24/12/2023 - 20:31
          +2

          And it feels good being out of the rain. No need for wipers

      • KangaDrew on 24/12/2023 - 20:47

        swing and a miss

      • blitz on 24/12/2023 - 22:38
        +2

        In death, a member of Project Mayhem has a name.

      • GaryQ on 25/12/2023 - 09:11

        A man who has no name has forgotten the face of his father

    • Gaz1 on 24/12/2023 - 16:33
      +3

      They call him the viper, because he plans to vipe your vindows….

      • leiiv on 24/12/2023 - 21:44
        +2

        I think his name is the vviper.

    • McFly on 25/12/2023 - 12:28
      +1

      Plot twist: OP's car is the little known Valar Morghulis - from a Soviet state in the 60's.

  • Jaduqimon on 24/12/2023 - 12:13
    +80

    Put your wipers up before he does next time. Then he will put them down for you instead.

  • Axelstrife on 24/12/2023 - 12:14
    +42

    Put his up one time so he knows you know it's him and see if he stops.

    • banana365 on 24/12/2023 - 15:08
      +21

      "Somebody representing your company in public by wearing your uniform is being a dick. I thought you might like to address that before he damages your company's reputation."

      • ceroau on 25/12/2023 - 10:53
        -3

        If I saw someone doing that, it wouldn't negatively impact my view of them let alone the company they work for.

        The dude is most likely just doing something rather innocuous to amuse himself because A) he wrongfully thinks OP car is a friends/co-workers or B) has just chosen a random person to mess in what got to be close to the most harmless way possible. OP could make a harmless little game of it and do it back to his, if not a friendly conversation or note would resolve this issue. No need to try to go Karen at the dudes company. The latter is far more likely to result in in escalation instead of de-escalation.

        • banana365 on 25/12/2023 - 16:24

          Perhaps not, but think about the nature of many of these replies. They clearly think the wiper lifter is doing the wrong thing so whilst you may not have a problem with it, many do.

    • GaryQ on 25/12/2023 - 09:13

      Don't call me champ

      • Hangryuman on 26/12/2023 - 13:20
        +1

        "surely you must be joking"

        "I'm not joking - and don't call me Shirley"

  • try2bhelpful on 24/12/2023 - 12:20
    +10

    I would just leave a note saying “please don’t touch my wipers”. See if he stops. If not the next step is to post up a picture of him touching the wipers with “please don’t touch my wipers”.

    • Protractor on 24/12/2023 - 13:27
      +3

      Leave an outlaw MC gang business card under the wipers?

    • km2g on 24/12/2023 - 14:16
      +1

      I am considering doing this.

    • spal on 25/12/2023 - 08:50

      I would rather say, please don't touch my car.

  • JIMB0 on 24/12/2023 - 12:30
    +14

    I had a dispute with a neighbour over parking once. He used to push my mirror in until I put sticky black grease on it. He never touched it again.

    • RotundPolarBear on 24/12/2023 - 14:48
      +1

      This is smart! What kind of black grease did you use and does it damage the car's paint?

      • JIMB0 on 24/12/2023 - 15:51
        +1

        The one for cv joints is best. Antiseeze also gets everywhere and is hard to remove.

  • tabz on 24/12/2023 - 12:35
    +8

    Depends on how petty you want to be.

    Print off a screen cap of him from your dashcam footage putting up your wipers and place it under his windscreen. Hopefully it makes him stop.

  • SpicyPeanut on 24/12/2023 - 12:36
    +9

    There's only one solution worth considering: smudge dog poo all over your wipers so next time he touches your wipers, he'll have dog poo all over his hand.
    Problem solved!!! You're welcome

    • Scrooge McDuck on 24/12/2023 - 17:58
      +3

      Does it have to be dog poo?

      • buckster on 24/12/2023 - 20:36
        +2

        I mean, human poo is generally more readily available….

        • altomic on 24/12/2023 - 22:24
          +5

          But store bought is fine

  • Tomcruise on 24/12/2023 - 12:38
    +1

    Could you somehow put something on them, that won't damage them, but make his life a mischief for a bit.

    Ie: some type grease, oil

    • Protractor on 24/12/2023 - 13:26
      -6

      Like a hot wire to an electric fence unit in the boot?

  • Gdsamp on 24/12/2023 - 12:42
    +20

    Leave a severed horse's head on his windscreen

    • Protractor on 24/12/2023 - 13:23
      -4

      Nah, that's pretty common, these days. Leave everything but the head of the horse on his WS. Preferably turned inside out.

      TIP: Plenty of dead horses at the race track. Especially where there's jumps/

  • jezzster on 24/12/2023 - 12:56
    +7

    You print out a screenshot of him doing it from your dashcam footage and put it on your dashboard for him to see next time he tries to do it.

  • El cheepo on 24/12/2023 - 13:11
    +7

    Gonna need to see a copy of these videos first.
    And then ms paint diagram of the car park and surrounding areas lay out.

  • Some Human on 24/12/2023 - 13:17
    +15

    Leave a note with one word: why?

    • Minimum chips on 24/12/2023 - 17:34
      +4

      This is the best. No weird agressive posturing like some are suggesting, no need to awkwardly confront, no assumption that he's doing it to be a dick. Uncomplicated, low effort and likely effective way of getting the awnser you are looking for.

  • brendanm on 24/12/2023 - 13:19
    +12

    Set fire to his car and kick his dog.

  • elgrande on 24/12/2023 - 13:53
    +19

    Print out a photo of him touching your wipers and place it in a love heart shaped frame. Set it up on your dash surounded by flowers and candles. He might freak out enough to leave you alone.

    • Froot Eneloops on 24/12/2023 - 21:01
      +19

      "Roses are Red,
      Violets aren't blue,
      Don't touch my wipers,
      My dashcam is recording you. <3"

    • OBEY YOUR MASTERS on 25/12/2023 - 11:44

      Make sure to leave the dashcam operating for this one!

  • rumblytangara on 24/12/2023 - 14:29
    +7

    Been told that this is the polite way of telling someone that they are parking like shit. Are you parked crooked, over the lines, or in a way that affects anyone else trying to park (e.g. jamming some huge pickup into a tight spot)?

    • km2g on 24/12/2023 - 17:14
      +1

      No. I have parked there for 8 years. I know how to park at the same spot perfectly.

    • Poor Ass on 25/12/2023 - 01:44

      I believe that's called a photo parker

  • newbo on 24/12/2023 - 14:34

    Only yours?

    • km2g on 24/12/2023 - 17:33

      Yes

  • Broke-Ken on 24/12/2023 - 15:10
    +2

    Should mess with him, sometimes leave your wipers up, sometimes, just the one up. Or even removing your wipers and see what he does.

    Or get a spare pair from the wreckers and rig it to break when someone tries to put them up, I'm sure if he thinks he broke your wipers, he isn't going to try to do it again.

  • Empharand on 24/12/2023 - 15:12
    +1

    Put an A4 printed sign in your windscreen saying something along the lines of:
    'Mr. Wiper Man… I dare you to do it again, bitch' with an arrow pointing to where the dashcam is (Maybe put 'Dashcam with Parking Mode' in small writing so this person understands)

    Bonus points if you put a QR code on your sign with something like 'Subscribe to my YouTube for the latest content, including wiper tomfoolery'

  • Frankensnore on 24/12/2023 - 15:15
    +5

    I have similar experience. I confront him, but I am too chicken to do it alone. So I bring two of my mates, one is an aspiring body builder about 180cm tall. Not exactly Arnold, but big arms. The other is short and thin, no muscle, but lots of earings and tattoos.

    I said hey, did you put up my wipers? Why did you do that? he begged mercy immediately. Takes less than 15 secs.

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