Can you hold a parking spot for someone?

Imagine a crowded parking lot, one so crowded you have to circle and wait for someone to leave in order to find a parking spot.

If you had family members on their way, could you stand in an empty parking spot and save it for your family?

One lady in this story tried to do just that.

Let’s see how that worked out.

AITA for refusing to give up a parking spot

On the weekend there is a very crowded party of town that we call “the village.”

It’s less than 1sq mile of bars and restaurants.

Needless to say, on the weekend it gets busy.

This is one of the last few spots in town that does not have paid parking, and as you can imagine it’s always a first come first serve basis.

There are a lot of parking lots and spaces on the street, but when it’s busy (like the weekend) it’s hard to find a spot anywhere, and usually have to park in a side road in the adjacent streets/neighborhood.

It was a busy night.

I arrived in the area and drove through the lot I normally park.

It was full, which I suspected, so I drove around the block knowing that a space will open. (I don’t mind driving around a bit and waiting if it means parking right next to the place I’m getting food.)

As I came around, I saw a car pulling out of a spot in the lot to my left.

I put on my turn signal and waited for traffic to clear before I turned in.

A lady claimed she was holding the spot.

As I was turning in, and aiming towards the spot (which was the 2nd spot into the lot from the main road), a lady ran over and held her hand up, motioning that she’s holding that spot.

I was already 1/4 of the way turned into the spot when this happened, and there was a car behind me also pulling in.

I told her she can’t hold a spot, it’s free parking and it’s the busiest night of the week.

Her and the guy she was with said that they were holding it for out of town family to park, and the car that just left was also her family who gave up the spot for the other people.

It was a standoff between the driver and the lady.

After 2 minutes of sitting, she said “oh, there they are! They’re pulling in now!” 2 minutes trying to hold a parking spot on a busy weekend in a hotspot in town

I refused to move, and sat there as cars lined up waiting to also pull in.

She said, “look, there’s another spot down there you can move to.”

Which I replied, “then go try to hold that one. I’m parking here.”

Her and the guy with her called me a jerk, said “are you seriously that big of a jerk” as I got out of my car.

If they wanted their family to park in that spot, they should’ve waited to move the first car until their family was in the parking lot ready to pull into the spot.

You can’t hold a parking spot by standing in it.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

Holding parking spots is not a thing.

Yes, there is technically a correct way to hold a parking spot. It’s with a car.

Here’s a similar comment about how you would really hold a parking spot.

It’s not like there wasn’t another parking spot.

This person refused to let a school block off parking spots.

Parking spots are for cars not pedestrians.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.