Woman Gets New Apartment With Parking—a Week Later, Anonymous Notes Appear
Parking and space-related conflicts are a growing source of tension in apartment communities.
A recent survey conducted by Talker Research on behalf of Newsweek asked 1,000 U.S. adults about their most intense disputes with neighbors. The findings highlighted a wide range of issues, from noise complaints to more confrontational scenarios like property damage and boundary disputes.
Gregg Ward, executive director of The Center for Respectful Leadership, warned against retaliatory behavior between neighbors. "If your neighbor doesn't behave in ways you want them to, the last thing you should do is get into a tit-for-tat battle with them," he told Newsweek. "This happens all too often, and it never ends well. In short, don't respond to disrespect with more disrespect—it will just make everything worse."
'Over the Top, Passive Aggressive'
The handwritten notes in the viral Reddit post, each written in red ink, carried an unmistakably hostile tone.
"Respect your neighbor + stop parking in their paid, assigned spot. It's just rude," read one. Another said: "I've tried to be kind but you ignored my note. You could have been towed week ago. Please let me park in the spot I've had for years. THX."
Two others echoed similar sentiments, with one stating simply: "Not your spot. Please stop taking it. Thank you."
Elizabeth said she responded by placing her own note on the windshield. It read: "I checked with the office and this is my spot. You should check with them too." She later found that her note had been removed but no additional messages were left.
"This is a pretty common occurrence for many different reasons, including inept property management and just trying to bully someone else out of their spot," she told Newsweek. "I prefer to believe that it was unintentional, and the notes were just an over-the-top, passive aggressive response to someone they genuinely believe was wronging them."
A number of Reddit users related to Elizabeth's experience and chimed in with their own stories of parking disputes caused by confusing or inaccurate leasing information.
U/cacophobiaxo said: "As someone who rents apartments for a living, can confirm this is usually the case."
One commenter, u/RogueKitteh, wrote: "This reminds me of when we first moved into our current place and the property manager at the time told us the wrong space number so we were just...unknowingly parking in someone else's spot like an asshole for a few days."
Another user, u/ecstaticegg, said: "Our complex put the 'wrong' parking spot number in OUR LEASE and then like twoyears later threatened to tow our car for parking in the spot we had been in for two years that was written into our lease agreement. I guess two leases had the same spot written in."
U/luciipurrrxo said: "Well if they don't leave anymore notes, I'd say they realized they were wrong and feel stupid...personally I would have checked with the office before writing these goofy notes and claiming a spot that isn't mine."
A stock image of a woman looking at a note left on the front window of a car.
A stock image of a woman looking at a note left on the front window of a car.
Getty
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