Imagine desperately needing to park your car and turn it off because you know if you don’t it’ll overheat. What would you do if the only place to park was in front of a store that was customer parking only?

In this story, one driver is in that exact situation, and he decides to park his car in front of the store no matter what.

But when a store employee insists that the parking lot is for customer’s only, he decides to humor her.

Keep reading for all the details.

You can’t park here, this parking lot is for customers only!

Years back I had a 1986 Chevy Cavalier, my Dad gifted it to me which was super nice of him… it was not the greatest car, but it got me from point A to point B usually without any problems.

One day I was headed to a friends place—but I forgot that the Woodward dream cruise was going on…

Side-note—people who live near this event call it the “Woodward nightmare cruise”… it’s an unending line of classic cars driving up and down Woodward avenue from Detroit to Birmingham, an annual mobile homage to Detroit being the “motor city”… and good times if you like old cars, modified vehicles, or craziness like motorized sofas or barstools.

As you can imagine, it draws quite a lot of people each year, and causes some extreme gridlock!

He knew he had to get coolant immediately.

So I’m caught in the cruise and maybe 1/2 an hour of stop and go traffic has my old car overheated… If I didn’t get some coolant my engine was gonna be done.

I’m a few blocks from a gas station but traffic just isn’t moving, so I pulled into the first driveway and parked in front of a shop I had never noticed.

As I pulled in, steam was seriously shooting out from under my hood!

Just as I’m getting out my car, this 60ish gray haired lady in a purple skirt comes running out the shop and yells “you can’t park here, this is customer parking only!”

He decided to become a customer.

I looked at her and then my car and she stammers “you need to move your car or I’m calling the police!”

I wasn’t going to move my car (driving at all would have literally killed it), but immediately inspiration for MC tickled my brain and I decided to walk into this woman’s shop.

She was clearly ticked off by this move and ended shadowing me around her shop, watching me like an angry hawk.

The place turned out to be one of those new age incense/candle/astrology type shops… ok whatever I can work with it.

He took his time.

Partially to make my point, but mainly because I needed my car to cool off before driving it… I calmly scrutinized EVERY.SINGLE.ITEM. she sold, all with her watching my every move —she followed me the ENTIRE TIME.

In hindsight I’m surprised that she didn’t have a stroke.

Meanwhile, this one other attendant working is getting stressed out by how busy this little place is the whole time, as she’s doing all the actual work.

I felt bad for the lady working but I can practically guarantee this store lost a fair amount of money because this lady insisted on badgering me… both to shoplifting by other people (which I had no intention of) and to people just leaving because their checkout time was crazy long.

He bought the least expensive thing possible.

About three hours later the crowds thinned out, and I had seen literally every item there was to see in this place,… at this point I figured my car was cooled off enough to make the short drive to a that nearby gas station.

I snatched up a $1 item I’d come across hours ago—a tiny, violet colored floating turtle shaped candle, and I paid for it.

She was still visibly angry and very unfriendly as she rang up this single, insignificant and inexpensive item l.

He had the last word…

As I left—receipt in hand of course, I smiled and said “wow, it looks like i’m a paying customer, buh-bye.”

Angry gray haired lady actually said nothing but she literally turned red in the face…

Also the second cashier was somehow laughing hysterically as I walked out…

Oh and my Mom ended up loving the little turtle candle.

That worked out well! But I feel bad for the other store employee who was doing all the work herself.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

One person knows what it’s like to be stuck in that cruise.

Another person expected it to end differently.

This person reminisces about their Cavalier.

Yet another person fondly remembers their Cavalier.

Bonus points for getting something for mom!

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.