Busted for Polishing!

After washing Graylord in my driveway, I took him to the Metro station parking garage to polish him. I don't have a garage and my driveway has a tree -- as soon as I clean the car, it's covered in pollen and other crap. The garage offers a nice shaded area and at weekends it's free and there are hardly any cars there. I had applied my Zaino and was about 3/4 of the way through removing the polish, when a cop rolls by.

At first, I thought he was just stopping to chat. He asked me if I'm polishing the car, and I said I was. Then he tells me that the garage is for parking only, and I'm not allowed to be doing anything else there, such as repairing, cleaning or polishing my car, and this is just a warning. He drove away, and I quickly tried to rub off the rest of the polish, but I saw him returning and thought I better look like I'm getting ready to leave before he comes back and gives me a ticket rather than a warning.

Sheesh. I wasn't using up a parking space that somebody else needed, nor was I making any mess, pouring water all over the place, or draining my oil. But I guess rules is rules!

 

I'm pretty sure there weren't any rules posted. I use the garage everyday and have never seen the rules. But who knows -- there's probably something somewhere about the use of the garage. I do understand that they would not want people tearing down their cars or changing oil in the garage. He was a city cop. Just doing his job, I suppose.

Before thinking of using the Metro garage, which I've done a couple of times before, I used the garage at Target. I got away with it the couple of times I did that, but then I thought, this is private property, and I'm pretty sure sooner or later someone will come out and tell me I'm misusing their property. With Metro though, I feel it's kind of public, and I personally am giving them a lot of money ($4.75/day) for the privilege of parking there.

So, I can't really think of anywhere else I can go. The shopping mall would be the same problem as Target! I had to come home and finish up in my driveway. The back of the car was covered in a layer of pollen within about 30 minutes!

 

Well, I was obviously a Taliban al Quaida sympathizer. Who else would polish a Prius? You never know what WME I have stashed in those little vials of Zaino.

 

Depends -- probably, if you have dandruff!

 

I think that most businesses don't want people using their parking lot for any reason except to park their car and visit their store. And I wouldn't want to be polishing my car out in the open where people are walking or driving by, which is why I chose an empty indoor garage.

Now I think about it -- there's a church with a big parking lot right behind my house. Wonder whether I can go and use their parking lot when they aren't in church?

 

Strictly speaking, the Metro parking lot is not public property -- it is owned by the Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority. And I guess, even things which could be considered public, such as roads or parks, have restrictions on who can do what. They probably wouldn't allow me to polish my Prius in a parking space in front of city hall, either, even if I put money in the meter!

 

I think He wouldn't mind - He doesn't want to have to look upon a dirty Prius either!

 

No, that's not the message -- I've questioned authority plenty --and no, I am not a criminal about to pounce on an unsuspecting individual (nobody except the cop even drove by anyway since I was on the top ramp) but I don't think that's the point. I'm sure it was obvious even to that cop that I was doing nothing more than polishing my car.

Whoever owns a piece of property, whether it's a private or public entity, has the right to determine the rules of useage (within the law). They don't want their property used for overnight camping, partying, selling merchandise, or, apparently, car maintenance of any kind. Now, I don't that my polishing my car at a weekend when there's nobody there interferes with anybody or degrades their property in anyway, but they have the right to say I can't do that there. There may actually be some sort of city/county ordnance regarding what can be done where.

I probably wouldn't want a complete stranger waxing his car on my street, or sleeping in his car, even though it's a city street.

 

I know, listening to the radio is a sure sign of criminal activity.

I actually did protest a little at first, pointing out that the place was empty and I wasn't interfering with anybody, and asked what my violation was. He just told me the the lot is to be used only for parking, not to repair, wash, or wax the car -- and that this is a warning. I thought it's best to just shut up. I didn't want him to come back, find me still there with my polishing cloth, order me to the ground, and taser me.