October 14, 2026 at 12:35 am

People Kept Parking on His Private Lot Near His Vacation Home—Until He Called a Fleet of Tow Trucks

by Matthew Gilligan

car getting towed away

Shutterstock

When it comes to protecting your property, you gotta do what you gotta do…

And if that means towing people who won’t obey the rules, well, it is what it is!

That’s what this guy did at a vacation home he frequents and, as you can imagine, not everyone was thrilled with his actions.

Read on and see if you think he took things too far.

AITA for towing half the neighborhood ?

“My family (wife side) has a summer apartment in the south of France in a gated community.

All year there is no parking issue, but in summer, since Airbnb came out, it’s hell to find a parking spot since there is no allocated spot.

There is a place with no clear parking line (imagine a big square of concrete) where everyone can park for free.

I had the opportunity with 3 neighbors to buy this “parking” to the copropriety (it’s like an HOA but with less power here) so we bought it last year.

It sounded pretty good!

We made 6 larges parking spaces for our cars with lines and plates numbers in front of each parking spot, and put a gate which is always open for the other neighbors to park here (you can park 3-5 other cars).

Here in France July and August are 2 months where almost everyone is on vacation so Airbnb and location peak here during this period.

Last week one of the neighbors I bought the parking with told me the parking was PACKED and he managed to park only one of his 2 cars on a unassigned parking spot (his parking spots were taken, mine too and the third neighbor too and every “free” slot too) so he put a warning sign telling parking is for resident only and not for anyone else.

Doh!

Cue 2 days ago when I come with wife and kids for vacation, I drove at night to avoid traffic and when I got there (3 AM) parking is packed I have no choice but to park 300 meter (1,000 feet) from my home.

Next morning we put a large sign telling cars on assigned parking spot would be towed and text every neighbor to ask for their plate to not tow a resident.

This morning was the same, so we closed the gate, phoned the police and got everyone towed.

That didn’t go so well…

The you-know-what hit the fan, bunch of Airbnb people called the cops and homeowners to ask why they got towed and the location was saying “with parking” so lot of refund where asked. My phone was ringing non-stop today.

Some homeowners tell me they’re gonna sue for the refund they got, some Airbnb tenant told me they will sue for the towing cost. We have everything documented.

Lots of Airbnb homeowners tell us we are  here because we didn’t tell them ahead, but we do put lots of sign on the parking since last year when we bought it, they just hadn’t come to see it, and they approved the selling of this parking to us so…

AITA for towing everyone here?”

Reddit users spoke up.

This person weighed in.

Screenshot 2026 10 10 at 4.16.12 PM People Kept Parking on His Private Lot Near His Vacation Home—Until He Called a Fleet of Tow Trucks

Another individual said he’s NTA.

Screenshot 2026 10 10 at 4.15.35 PM People Kept Parking on His Private Lot Near His Vacation Home—Until He Called a Fleet of Tow Trucks

This Reddit user agreed.

Screenshot 2026 10 10 at 4.15.56 PM People Kept Parking on His Private Lot Near His Vacation Home—Until He Called a Fleet of Tow Trucks

Another reader spoke up.

Screenshot 2026 10 10 at 4.16.25 PM People Kept Parking on His Private Lot Near His Vacation Home—Until He Called a Fleet of Tow Trucks

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a daughter who moved her mom in after her dad passed, but doesn’t want to fill the role of a spouse.

And this individual weighed in.

Screenshot 2026 10 10 at 4.16.34 PM People Kept Parking on His Private Lot Near His Vacation Home—Until He Called a Fleet of Tow Trucks

Well, it is his property…

So it looks like he’s in the clear!

But you know that he’s probably never gonna be friends with these neighbors…

He did what he had to do…and he wasn’t messing around!

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