A woman recently told the story of how she was accused of stealing a parking permit from her local council simply because she was wearing a hoodie.
Here’s what she had to say.
The woman was 26 at the time and lived in a small town just outside Oxford, England. She lived alone and didn’t own a car, but her partner did, and he would visit her most weekends.
Her apartment didn’t come with a parking spot, but the local council gave out temporary parking permits that could be used at several parking lots across town and cost around 45p, so less than a dollar for 24 hours. This was a great scheme, so the young woman got herself a temporary parking card which was topped up with £16.
About a month later, the woman forgot her wallet on a bus and therefore lost the parking card. She went back to the council and explained the situation. They told her not to worry at all. They could easily cancel the card and issue her a new one.
A few months after that, the woman, once again, lost the parking card. She felt like an idiot, but there was nothing to do but to notify the council and ask for a new card. It was a particularly gloomy day, so she put on a hoodie, grabbed a £20 note, and went to the local council office.
As she got inside, two elderly ladies were in front of her, so she patiently waited her turn.
Once the ladies had been served, she walked up to the counter and said, “hi, I’ve unfortunately lost my temporary parking card. Would it be possible to ask for a new one please?”. The lady behind the counter did not look impressed.
She eyed the young woman up and down and said, “Not just like that, you can’t!”. She then noticed the £20 in her hand and said, “and we don’t have change either!”.
The young woman was stunned. She didn’t really know what to say but managed to compose herself. “Oh, but I’ve actually had a replacement card before. Is there a reason why you can’t issue me one?”
The lady behind the counter started going on about how “anyone can come in here and claim they’ve lost a parking card”, to which the young woman replied, “but I live here? You have a record of my last card”.
The woman behind the counter aggressively grabbed a booklet and looked up the young woman’s address. She found her name and started asking all sorts of questions. “How long have you lived there? Where exactly did you lose the card?”
The young woman replied, “well, I don’t know. If I did, then I would have picked it up.”
The young woman didn’t understand why the lady was being so aggressive. She looked young, yes, and she was wearing a hoodie, but she had lived in the apartment for five years, paid her taxes, and she was just looking to get a replacement parking card.
Then the council lady said, “you know, we get a lot of young people in here claiming that they have lost the parking card, but in actual fact, they just want a second one to give to their friends. It’s basically stealing.”
The young woman was losing her patience. She thought, “is this woman accusing me of stealing…. a temporary parking card?”
She had enough and said, “well, I don’t even own a car. It’s just for my partner who visits at the weekends, now please can I ask for a new card? What do I need to do here?”
After hesitating for several minutes, the council lady finally agreed to take the £20, but she had no change to give to the young woman, which was funny, seeing as she was standing in front of a cash register.
She also said that she had to speak to the manager in charge of parking first, as he was the one who issued the cards.
That was no problem, thought the young woman. He was the one who gave her the replacement parking card last time. So the young woman left, albeit a bit shook by the experience.
A week later, the woman received an envelope in her mailbox. It was a new parking card, some change, and a handwritten letter from the parking manager.
She couldn’t believe what she was reading. The manager wrote that he had issued her a new parking card, BUT they were able to track all old cards. He, therefore, warned her that if she was using the old card, she better be aware that they would find out and that it was a criminal offense.
The woman was utterly dumbfounded and wondered if the parking manager sent out these types of threatening letters to all residents who were in need of new parking cards.
The woman moved to another town a few months later and never got to the bottom of why the council had treated her this way. One thing’s for certain: She’ll be sure to keep an extra eye on her parking cards in the future.
