Dense city parking is a high-stakes game, and blocking someone’s driveway is one of the fastest ways to lose it.

A renter who discovered a neighbor’s car blocking her driveway waited through the night and most of the next day before calling the city to have it towed.

A week later, the neighbor showed up in her front yard demanding $500 in reimbursement, explaining that the tow had cost her a new job and calling the whole situation an act of violence.

The homeowner pointed out that parking illegally over someone’s driveway and nearly causing an accident carries some responsibility, but the neighbor disagreed.

It was the kind of conversation you need to read for yourself to believe.

AITA for towing a neighbors car

I just moved to a very dense neighborhood last week.

Parking is tight, with a 4-hour limit and metered parking.

I am lucky enough to have a long, narrow driveway that meets with my neighbor’s the last few feet.

But then the renter noticed something was amiss.

One night last week, I noticed that someone had partially blocked about a quarter to a third of the driveway.

The entire back wheel was blocking the driveway.

This ended up creating an enormous safety concern.

It was still there in the morning when I had to drive my kid to school, and I was able to get around awkwardly by using my neighbor’s driveway.

I am still getting used to looking out for all the cars, pedestrians, bikers, and e-scooters, with little visibility due to parked cars on the street.

I was concentrating on not hitting her car, and I almost got hit by a car I didn’t see.

So this renter decided she couldn’t just stand idly by.

By 3:00 PM, I decided to call the city to get it towed.

I had someone coming over and had told them they could park behind me in my driveway.

The city had it towed within 30 minutes.

But what she didn’t expect was her neighbor confronting her about it.

So today I was working in my front yard when this woman came up and asked me if I had a car towed last week.

I really didn’t want to have this conversation, but I think I’m in the right, so I said yes — because it was partially blocking my driveway.

Turns out, this caused a massive domino effect for the neighbor.

She told me she got off work super late and parked there thinking it was fine, but the next day she could not get her car out of impound and lost her new job because she didn’t have transportation.

She wanted me to pay the $500 impound fee.

She continued on with her sob story.

She told me that what I did had a huge impact on her life, while she only inconvenienced me.

She kept emphasizing that I am her neighbor and had done violence to her.

When I said that I hadn’t done any violence, she said I hadn’t done the deconstruction work yet.

But this renter wasn’t buying it.

I told her it was her responsibility to make sure she’s parked correctly, and that I had waited quite a bit before calling the city — and it’s not my fault that this impacted her life so badly.

If she had left a note or something, I probably wouldn’t have had it towed.

She told me this isn’t a good way to live one’s life and that she doesn’t want to live like this.

She also didn’t like the larger implications of this.

If it were my husband outside instead of me, I doubt she would’ve had the audacity to ask for $500.

I wonder if she’s going to confront the job she got fired from or the tow truck company with the city about the impact and violence they had on her life.

It was a really weird conversation.

I feel like it was a huge guilt trip for the things going on in her life that she doesn’t want to take responsibility for, but I do feel awful that towing her car made her life so much worse.

AITA?

This neighbor clearly doesn’t understand how the real world works.

If you enjoyed this post, check out this story about renters who proved the “legal” parking spaces just weren’t going to work.

Redditors chime in, and they didn’t feel much sympathy.

This user describes it best.

It’s clear this neighbor was only thinking about herself.

It’s very unlikely this neighbor would have repaid the same favor she demanded from someone else.

This neighbor doesn’t seem to understand the concept of accountability.

This neighbor clearly didn’t seem to understand that she can’t just offload all of her poor decision making onto someone else.

She alone made the decision to block the driveway, especially when she knew deep down it wasn’t the right thing to do.

This renter never expected her neighbor to lose her job, but that didn’t give her any less right to protect her space.

Demanding $500 from someone you barely know is never the move.