Unfiltered Story #194973

(I am a concierge in a condominium. I and my coworkers not only help residents with their problems and concerns but we also remind and reprimand residents when they break the condo rules and bylaws. One of the rules the condo board of directors has given us to enforce is that residents of the condo ARE NOT allowed to park their cars in visitor parking for more than 15 minutes because visitor parking is for VISITORS. It doesn’t matter whether the resident owns or rents a parking space for their car or DOESN’T have one. They CANNOT park in visitor parking. If we find their car parked in visitor parking overnight, we are REQUIRED to call city parking enforcement officers and have their car given a $30 ticket. We ARE NOT allowed to call them in the middle of the night to make them come move their car. We are not allowed to ignore their improperly-parked resident car. We MUST get them ticketed. We’ll get in trouble if the property manager finds out we DIDN’T ticket an improperly parked resident car.

A woman has recently moved into the condo I work in and has apparently never lived in a condo before, so is surprised and annoyed that there are rules she has to follow and she can’t just do whatever she likes. She left her car in visitor parking overnight without any permission from management to do so. My coworker found her car there when he did nightly parking patrol and called to have her car ticketed. A few days later, her son showed up at the desk to talk to him about it.)

Son: I heard you ticketed my mother’s car.
Coworker: Yes. The condo rules state that residents can’t park their cars in visitor parking without permission from management. She didn’t have an overnight pass that would give her permission to do that, so I’m required to have her ticketed.
Son: You can’t do that.
Coworker: What do you mean?
Son: You can’t ticker her. She’s handicapped. Her car has the handicap sticker. Handicapped people can’t be ticketed.
Coworker: The condo rules state clearly that residents can’t park their cars in visitor parking or they’ll be ticketed. Your mother parked her car there so she had to be ticketed. It’s in the condo rules.
Son: Well the condo rules are wrong. Handicapped people can’t be ticketed.
Coworker: What do you mean they can’t be ticketed?
Son: It’s illegal to ticket a handicapped person. They can park wherever they want so long as they have that sticker.
Coworker: The parking enforcement officer was there. He listened to me explain our rules and he agreed with them and gave her the ticket.
Son: Well he’s wrong. You’re all wrong and need to be educated. If a handicapped person parked ON THE FREEWAY, they STILL couldn’t be ticketed. You can’t ticket handicapped people.
Coworker: That’s not how it works.
Son: Yes it is. You all need to be educated. I know why you REALLY ticketed my mother and why you’re arguing with me.

(The mother and son are black. As he made his statement, he plucked at the skin of his arm to make a point of showing off his skin colour,)

Son: That’s why.
Coworker: I assure you that is NOT why she was ticketed. However, if you have any complaints, you may speak to the property manager about it. I can give you his number so you can call him.
Son: Oh no. He’s going to call ME. I’m not calling HIM. Here’s my number.

(He scrawls his name, phone number, the words “Re: Ticket” and the message “Must call” on a piece of paper and hands it to my coworker.)

Coworker: Do you live nearby?
Son: Oh yes. I live right around the corner.
Coworker: Then why not come in and speak to the property manager directly? He’s in the office on *days and hours*.
Son: As I said, HE will call ME. I’M not calling HIM. And when he calls me, we’ll see this get straightened out.

(He then stomped off. The kicker? When he suggested my coworker was racist, he was saying this to a man who is Pakistani. Yes, anyone can be racist, but the likelihood that one minority person would be racist towards another fellow minority person is really small.)