"So my Audi got booted...and this is what I'm going to do about it"

[airmenair]

Copied from VWVortex.com, one man's quest to stick it to the man. It is a very long read but the summaries start on page 52, which is where I will link you too.

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothrea...880087&page=51

I'll give a basic summary to those who are unsure whether or not to read it, but trust me it is worth a read.

Basically,

This guy lives in Tempe, Arizona and moved into a housing development with a nazi-like home owners association. After one year of living there he is notified that a private company has taken out a contract with the HOA to essentially "buy up" all the property on the streets and only allow people to park on the streets if they buy some sort of parking pass from them which must be hung in a some specific location. Well the narrator purchased one of these and had it for 3 months but, the pass included all his information including home address and what not so he did not want it displayed when going to work, etc. So one day he forgets to put it back in its spot before returning home and wakes up to his Audi "booted" on the street by these parking guys. In order to get them off you have to call them up and pay $140 each time it happens. (No warning first). His solution, since he wasn't needing it as a daily driver was to put the car on dollies and wheel it into his garage and drive his Jetta.

Long story short, he told the parking people that he had their boots and said that they could come get them whenever they liked. The story only escalates from here, it might be picked up by FOX news, the thread was closed as of June 20, so I don't know where or when or if there will be more updates.

Enjoy

EDIT: I just realized this might be the wrong spot for this thread.

[Labcoatguy]

All those pictures are down...but I get the general idea.

[LeVeL]

Epic. Here's a summary that I found elsewhere, if you dont feel like reading 61 pages on the vortex:

Originally Posted by MorpheusZero

Here are some more detailed cliffs that I posted for another forum

It's more complicated than this but here goes

Guy's car gets booted the first time he didn't have his permanent permit up on his mirror (it isn't stick on and he doesn't want to advertise where he lives so he takes it off when he isn't parked at his house) $140 removal fee

Guy says **** this, I was about to park my car and use a different one anyway, calls the cops to see what he can legally do, uses dollys (one under each wheel) to move his car to his garage with the boot still on his wheel

Guy calls asshole parking service company to tell them he has their boots on his car at his house and they can come get them if they want

General manager of asshole company comes to his house along with someone from the Sheriff's dept and a few other peons

"Here you can take your boots off if you want them"
"That'll be $140"
"Nah you can take them if you want or you can leave if you want"
"But you need to drive your car"
"No I don't"
"Well you're stealing our property and refusing to pay"
"No, you can have your property if you want it or you can leave, I'm not stealing anything, I didn't damage your property and I'm not refusing to pay, either take them or leave"

Sheriff says guy is not in the wrong so they will have to put up with it

Then in retaliation of the company everyone around the homeowner's association where he lives gets booted for the tiniest **** and they tell him that all his parking priveleges are revoked and he will be towed next time he parks anywhere on the homeowners assoc.
Homeowners association says **** that you can park anywhere you want and reviews the contract with the parking company

Then the parking company backs off and starts issuing warnings to people instead of immediately booting their car

Then the thread got locked.

[airmenair]

^^ Yea that is a pretty good summary. If you start on page 51 though there is only 2-3 pages and you can be totally caught up on the situation.

[Spectre]

The people who do boots are invariably cheap b***ards and use cheap locks.

Here's my solution:



Costs $20 USD, you can pick the lock in about 20 seconds and you've not damaged their property at all.

[_HighVoltage_]

I don't want to read 60 pages...how did he get the car on the dollies? How did he lift it?
I must say - a very clever solution to the problem. That's one of the things that I hate the most about America - the parking regulations. It is not THAT crowded with cars for such strict rules. It's just a way for some suspicious companies to make money.

[LeVeL]

Originally Posted by _HighVoltage_

I don't want to read 60 pages...how did he get the car on the dollies? How did he lift it?

Jacks?

[watto]

I just don't understand this whole HOA thing you read about every now and then. What are they? Do they look after your concerns about housing if you live within a housing development or something??

Pity we don't know if he got it off or not.

[airmenair]

Originally Posted by watto

I just don't understand this whole HOA thing you read about every now and then. What are they? Do they look after your concerns about housing if you live within a housing development or something??

Pity we don't know if he got it off or not.

I see them as mini governments that institute all these rules and regulations in a neighborhood and is typically run in a democratic matter with the positions being filled by homeowners in the neighborhood. It's bullshit they regulate the most absurd things and making owning your own house hell. I view them as America's little mini-nanny states. They enable people to anonomously complain about their neighbors doing ANYTHING instead of actually going to meet your neighbor, express your feelings, and work through it maturely. So neighbors are no longer neighborly and no one knows their neighbor. It's pathetic really. You know the lady that stays at home all day and has nothing to do? Well the HOA give her the power to meddle in other peoples business and they will actually listen to any stupid complaint she has and issue a written warning to the "offender." It's pathetic, I hate it. I will never live in a neighborhood with an HOA. If I have it my way I won't have any neighbors. My girlfriend lives in a neighborhood with an HOA and it pisses me off. She has two weiner dogs that live inside except for going out to "relieve" themselves. She got two anonomous complaints from people complaining about dog barking late at night, when they are inside...asleep. Instead of actually investigating the problem they told her if it happened again she would be fined and if it happened once more her dogs would be taken from her... WTF? In fact it was one of her other neighbors that had the dog barking and the people that complained didn't bother to find out who it was they just sent a blanket complaint out to all those living near them and the HOA listend. It's bullshit.


I'm not sure what I hate more, the HOA or the nosy neighbors....

Originally Posted by _HighVoltage_

I don't want to read 60 pages...how did he get the car on the dollies? How did he lift it?
I must say - a very clever solution to the problem. That's one of the things that I hate the most about America - the parking regulations. It is not THAT crowded with cars for such strict rules. It's just a way for some suspicious companies to make money.

Yea jacks and you don't have to read through 60 pages. Read pages 51 and 52. Someone put the whole story on those two pages.

[Momentum57]

you can get a circular lock pick for about 100 bucks and then just take to boot off and throw it away, cost them alot more than you paid for the pick.

[Hercules286]

Can't you just jack up the car, unbolt the wheel, remove the lock as it is still locked, then bolt the wheel back on?

[Momentum57]

the boot covers the lug nuts

[avanti]

I saw a guy prying a boot of his car with his bare hands the other day, in broad daylight, downtown Milan, just left it on the street and drove off!

[starfox07]

Originally Posted by avanti

I saw a guy prying a boot of his car with his bare hands the other day, in broad daylight, downtown Milan, just left it on the street and drove off!

That is why I love Italy.

[Spectre]

Originally Posted by Momentum57

you can get a circular lock pick for about 100 bucks and then just take to boot off and throw it away, cost them alot more than you paid for the pick.

Circular lock picks cost a lot less than that now AND you can defeat most of them with a white-plastic-tubed Bic pen.

[starfox07]

Originally Posted by Spectre

Circular lock picks cost a lot less than that now AND you can defeat most of them with a white-plastic-tubed Bic pen.

I know the premise behind picking locks....but I never been able to do it! Makes me mad.

[fbc]

Awesome. A win for the good guys (even though the arsehole HOA is still using the equally-arsehole clampers)

[FATMOUSE]

epic win.

[No Boss]

I lub VwVortex.

[Zuhaib]

Originally Posted by watto

I just don't understand this whole HOA thing you read about every now and then. What are they? Do they look after your concerns about housing if you live within a housing development or something??

Pity we don't know if he got it off or not.

Originally Posted by airmenair

I see them as mini governments that institute all these rules and regulations in a neighborhood and is typically run in a democratic matter with the positions being filled by homeowners in the neighborhood. It's bullshit they regulate the most absurd things and making owning your own house hell. I view them as America's little mini-nanny states. They enable people to anonomously complain about their neighbors doing ANYTHING instead of actually going to meet your neighbor, express your feelings, and work through it maturely. So neighbors are no longer neighborly and no one knows their neighbor. It's pathetic really. You know the lady that stays at home all day and has nothing to do? Well the HOA give her the power to meddle in other peoples business and they will actually listen to any stupid complaint she has and issue a written warning to the "offender." It's pathetic, I hate it. I will never live in a neighborhood with an HOA. If I have it my way I won't have any neighbors. My girlfriend lives in a neighborhood with an HOA and it pisses me off. She has two weiner dogs that live inside except for going out to "relieve" themselves. She got two anonomous complaints from people complaining about dog barking late at night, when they are inside...asleep. Instead of actually investigating the problem they told her if it happened again she would be fined and if it happened once more her dogs would be taken from her... WTF? In fact it was one of her other neighbors that had the dog barking and the people that complained didn't bother to find out who it was they just sent a blanket complaint out to all those living near them and the HOA listend. It's bullshit.


I'm not sure what I hate more, the HOA or the nosy neighbors....

Well as someone that has a little more experience with HOA let me try to explain it without some overt bias =P
Wiki does a good job explaining it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeowners_association
but pretty much a HOA is a private organization setup by a community (or developer) to govern private matters within that neighborhood/area and protect the value of neighborhood. From time to time some HOAs will also cover things that might be public but not available (I have heard in some rural areas HOA will provide fire service as well). But they cover things like upkeep of the neighborhood, your lawn and "public" facilities like pools or other extras (one community here has their own private horse riding grounds and stable). In a way, HOAs are setup to do things the local Government would not do and are more popular in rural areas that dont have a local government with large budgets.
The downsides come in when it comes to protecting home values. A lot of HOA have strict conduct rules that are in place to protect values like what color of hour home, what you do to your house and etc. And because they are a private groups they can go far and beyond Government limits and have little oversight.
Personally I dont like them, but some of them can be pretty good if they are kept in bounds. But I recommend check the wiki, it will give you an idea.