Hospital staff face threat of mechanic's lean after submitting fake service requests to get free parking at mechanic's lot for work

Author image for Brad Dickson
Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Dec 10, 2024 6:00 PM EST

Is it just a thing that hospitals must have the most inaccessible parking around?

I'll never forget the irony of having to walk (hobble) 10 minutes down the road and across the adjacent park and across the adjacent park on my freshly broken ankle away from the local hospital where there was the closest parking available. And, of course, this was in the early hours of the morning after waiting 8 hours in the emergency department and in the not-so-nice part of town.

To make matters even worse, you'd have to imagine that the staff of the hospital were doing the same thing I had to do daily, meaning that nursing and support staff getting off early shifts were walking through the dark, unlit park and side streets alone in the early hours to get to their vehicles.

So, in a way, you can understand the need for this hospital's staff to find closer parking, but doing so at the expense of a local family-run business is not the way to do it… making this story just another example of the extreme lengths people will go to in order to secure parking for their vehicles.

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  • 01
    NASK BADIA P MADISO
    via Jasper Bennett

    Image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Image is for illustration only and subjects are models.

  • 02
    Hospital expansion causes parking problems. M A post in AITA reminded me of this story. Thought you all might like it. Back in the 90s I worked at the family engine shop downtown. It was an L shaped building, with a "back lot" that was separated from the street by a brick wall topped with a wrought iron fence,
    via MichigaCur
  • 03
    the only access to it was through the shop. On the other side of the building we had a 20 spot lot that was completely open. The shop was about 3 small blocks from the local hospital.
    via MichigaCur
  • 04
    The hospital decided to remodel and expand, but since they were landlocked at the time, the only place they had to build was their parking garage and lots. So they immediately changed their policy to only emergency room parking on site, they bought or rented several lots around the city and ran a bus (maybe busses) to get everyone to and from the hospital. From what I gathered,
    via MichigaCur
  • 05
    the staff lot was the furthest away and the bus stopped at every lot on its route adding quite some time to the staffs commute. They got very strict that there was no staff parking for any reason in any lot other than the staff lot, this included visiting doctors or specialists, whatever. It wasn't long before our parking lot started filling as we were the closest business with an open lot.
    via MichigaCur
  • 06
    At first we simply had any car with a hospital sticker towed. About two weeks after that we would start getting keys in the drop box with notes like "makes funny noise when turning right, have ready by 2pm". We would take the car around the block for a "test drive" and write some notes if we noticed anything. Of course they never wanted to fix whatever that issue was if we actually found something.
    via MichigaCur
  • 07
    My uncle quickly got tired of these shenanigans and had a glorious solution, use the back lot to store these new "customer" vehicles. He would have me move the cars into the back, behind the customer and shop vehicles right next to the fence so the
    via MichigaCur
  • 08
    "customer" could clearly see their vehicle(s). he then charged for a days storage and for every car we had to move to get the hospital staffs car in and out. I don't know exactly what he charged, but probably around $100 total for the day. Not only that, but it would take me 40 minutes to an hour to "move everything around" just to get to
    via MichigaCur
  • 09
    one of these vehicles out. Of course the hospital staff would yell and complain over the price and how long it took me to get their vehicles. My uncle would just smile and if they didn't want to pay tell me to move slower "take extra care of this important customers car" he'd say while he set up the paperwork to place a mechanics lein on the vehicle. It didn't take long for the issue to reduce from a full lot to maybe one when we got to the shop in the morning.
    via MichigaCur
  • 10
    MegC18 There's a lot like that near our hospital. For £5, you can park there for the day. As this is cheaper than the hospital parking area, it's always full. He must be making a couple of hundred pounds a day! Your uncle could have been rich!
    via MichigaCur
  • 11
    kiltedturtle Missed the chance to charge a "refundable diagnostic fee" if they got the work done.
    via MichigaCur
  • 12
    jim_br Back in the 80s, Car and Driver magazine had an annual ten best issue, and one article was 10 best car stories. One story was a guy who went to a Cadillac dealership in Manhattan (NYC) for an oil change special. Every day for a week. When asked why he kept coming back, he said it was cheaper than paying for a day of parking.
    via MichigaCur
  • 13
    La... I bet the senior paper pushers at the hospital exempted themselves from the inconvenience of a cross town bus ride morning and evening because they are far more important to patient treatment than doctors and nurses (/s).
    via MichigaCur
  • 14
    GirlStiletto I had an employee in Queens that had an apartment on the second story of a small house less than a block fom the school. The teachers' lot was very small, only enough for the admins. He used to rent out his parking spots in the driveway from (he had two spots and the lower tenant had two spots) 6m-4p every day to teachers.
    via MichigaCur
  • 15
    sigmund14 The hospital probably could (and should) make the ground floor (and maybe even underground) a parking garage. It would be a nice, but expensive, solution. Not sure how it would compare to the cost of rented and bought parking lots.
    via MichigaCur
  • 16
    D1133 Uncle shoulda rented out spots.
    via MichigaCur
  • 17
    CoderJoe1 Completely out of blinker fluid, $100.
    via MichigaCur
  • 18
    Starfury_42 11h ago • • The very large hospital I work for charges staff for parking on-site. Lucky for me I'm at an off site location doing IT and we have free parking.
    via MichigaCur
  • 19
    derklempner It's a good story, and an excellent way to exact revenge, but it's not complying with any sort of demand. It's more r/ProRevenge.
    via MichigaCur

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pro revenge parking space parking lot malicious compliance parking ticket hospital revenge parking drama parking stories petty revenge prorevenge mechanic
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