A badly parked car that took up three parking spaces all weekend in downtown Bend had people wondering about the driver’s motives.
Some grew frustrated and scrawled “Nice park job” graffiti on the car, while parking citations accumulated under the windshield wipers.
“It’s not everyday you see a car going the wrong way down a one-way street taking up three parking spots,” said Nate Powers, who works at Engel & Volkers, one of several businesses impacted by the lost parking. “Also it had been tagged which is unusual. Very strange taking up prime downtown spots. After hearing it was left here all weekend, I think that’s a little unusual.”
The car in question, a late model Subaru, was parked across three pull in parking spots, facing the wrong direction on Wall Street.
It sat there for two days drawing the ire of people hunting for parking spaces.
“Officer initiated a traffic stop on a vehicle that was traveling the wrong way on a one way street. The vehicle was driving around 2 am Saturday morning,” said Sheila Miller, Bend Police communications manager. “The vehicle pulled over to the right out of the lane of travel but into those parking spaces. Our officer made an arrest on suspicion of DUII. That person was at .25 BAC,” which is three times the legal limit.
Miller says because the car was not blocking the travel lanes, it was left to be reclaimed by the owner.
But the owner remained in jail longer than expected so finally, on Monday morning, the vehicle was towed.
“The graffiti is unfortunate. It’s not how we encourage the public to express their concerns. If the driver reports that we will investigate that,” Miller said.
“I think it’s important to note this is something that could have been entirely avoided if the person had chosen not to get behind the wheel while intoxicated.”
In addition to legal trouble associated with driving under the influence, the car’s owner faces parking violations, a towing fee and daily impound charges totaling about $250. The fees increase until they are paid.
An expensive night on the town.
