Quote from: Little Monkey Toes on December 11, 2011, 09:56:51 AM
I used to hang out at a coffee shop in the Montclair section of Oakland, CA. There was a bench we would take over and our thing was watching the parkers and laughing at them. We made 0 to 10 signs and would grade them. We made a woman cry once!

One hundred points for your team! That's pretty funny.

Local joke - What's the suburbanite 30 minute workout? Parallel Parking in the city.

I am the master parallel parker. I once had to park an F-150 with a 30ft rockwall, I had the trailer wheels and the truck wheels kissing the curb.
Took like 4 spots but I got it done.

Best parallel parking job was from a buddy of mine who was a pilot.  Without touching the car in front of him or behind him, he ended up 6 inches of clearance off both bumpers, under 6" off the curb, and he started from across the street.    Crazy.

My favorite watering hole has street-view parking, so I've spent many an afternoon watching someone make a 23-point parallel parking attempt before cutting out right as they finally got it lined up.

Quick hypothetical question.  

Lets say someone parked their truck in a regular parking space.  Truck has a trailer hitch mounted.  Lets say some jackhole pulled up so close that their bumper popped over the hitch ball which was well within the parking space.  Lets say the driver of the truck, not noticing the extreme proximity of the car behind pulled out.  There was a bit of resistance at first then a big ripping sound.

Quick glance in side view mirror, hm, wonder what that bumper was doing on the.......ground.... right behind.....my......truck.  

Pause for ethical review.......justified, not my fault.  

Later!

What would you have done?

Quote from: rgramjet on December 13, 2011, 05:56:22 AM
Quick hypothetical question. 

Lets say someone parked their truck in a regular parking space.  Truck has a trailer hitch mounted.  Lets say some jackhole pulled up so close that their bumper popped over the hitch ball which was well within the parking space.  Lets say the driver of the truck, not noticing the extreme proximity of the car behind pulled out.  There was a bit of resistance at first then a big ripping sound.

Quick glance in side view mirror, hm, wonder what that bumper was doing on the.......ground.... right behind.....my......truck. 

Pause for ethical review.......justified, not my fault. 

Later!

So, what's your question?

Changed. 

Doing 10 things at once, none of them well.......

Heck, if someone drove up on my tow hitch ball, it is clearly their fault and I would not waste a half second thinking about it. If you stop, they will try to blame you for it. So it's not worth it to stick around and give them the chance. Just my $0.02

If you actually didn't notice that they were on it before you ripped off their bumper, then no sweat.  Totally their fault.

However, I'd say the decent thing to do if you'd seen it before you tore it off would've been to pull your hitch pin, pull forward, and then stick your hitch back in the receiver.

Quote from: Rameses on December 13, 2011, 12:51:26 PM

If you actually didn't notice that they were on it before you ripped off their bumper, then no sweat.  Totally their fault.

However, I'd say the decent thing to do if you'd seen it before you tore it off would've been to pull your hitch pin, pull forward, and then stick your hitch back in the receiver.

Agreed.

There's no way they wouldn't notice (or at least they should have noticed) driving onto your hitch. If they were on it good enough to pull their bumper off (even after they got out of the car, unloading the suspension), then they should have felt it when they parked. F'em!

It would be tempting to pick the bumper up and ram it through their side window...leaving a note saying sorry about the bumper, but learn how to park. 

Quote from: Rameses on December 13, 2011, 12:51:26 PM

If you actually didn't notice that they were on it before you ripped off their bumper, then no sweat.  Totally their fault.

However, I'd say the decent thing to do if you'd seen it before you tore it off would've been to pull your hitch pin, pull forward, and then stick your hitch back in the receiver.

You don't own a pickup that the hitch has been in the receiver for several years...

do you?

Quote from: Little Monkey Toes on December 11, 2011, 09:56:51 AM
I used to hang out at a coffee shop in the Montclair section of Oakland, CA. There was a bench we would take over and our thing was watching the parkers and laughing at them. We made 0 to 10 signs and would grade them. We made a woman cry once!

I remember parking once across the bay right off Divisadaro near Fell. As we got out of the car and walked across the street a Ford Taurus came that had all four corners scraped up with big black scuffs.  It was obvious that he used his car like a shoe horn to get into parking spaces. He was eyballing the limited amount of space between our car and the next one. After he saw us watching him he moved on.

I had something similar happen at the airport.  I replaced my ball hitch with a tow hook 
I know have a multitude of colors on my hook.  Serves them right for not knowing how to park.  Someone dented mu front bumper so it too now has one but only while parked at the airport.