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How Embarrassing

by Scott C. Benjamin |

2 Comments | Add Comment

 

This is slightly more dramatic than the scene I witnessed; but hey, you get the idea. (AP Photo/Shaun Zimmerman)

So, late last week I was at Trader Joe’s picking up a gift certificate for my aunt’s birthday. She really loves that place. And as I pulled my car into the parking lot, I witnessed (well, nearly witnessed) an unusual incident. Just seconds earlier, an elderly woman had driven her Dodge Neon completely over a parking barrier (all four wheels) and into a brick wall. Now, I know what you’re probably thinking: How embarrassing. A Dodge Neon?

Just kidding. The Dodge Neon is a fine car to own and drive (really).

Anyway, the driver was uninjured, but now she had the parking barrier pressing against the backside of her rear wheels and a brick wall (which somehow showed no sign of damage) just an inch or two away from her front bumper. Since the barrier was firmly bolted to the ground and the brick wall wasn’t going anywhere either, her car was completely wedged in place.

The driver seemed pretty embarrassed about the whole episode, and since I didn’t feel the need to gawk unnecessarily at the scene, I didn’t stick around long enough to see how they were finally able to extricate the car from its odd parking position. I’m guessing that they had to pry or cut the parking barrier free or somehow lift the car straight up and out. Either way, it was a big mess. The entire incident left me wondering about cars that end up trapped in really unusual places.

So now it’s your turn. What strange scenes have you stumbled upon that made you scratch your head and wonder: “How the heck did that car get there?”

More related stuff:
How Dodge Works
How to Build a Brick Wall for a Screened Porch
Top 5 Car Wreck Videos
How StumbleUpon Works

 

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2 Comments

  • Katie Lambert says:

    In our very own parking deck, I watched a woman determinedly trying to back her Suburban into a parking space situated next to a concrete column. The first time she tried, she scratched it. And yet she tried again, scratching it more deeply. The third time, she knocked off her sideview mirror. When she went for a fourth time, I couldn’t watch anymore.

  • 10 p.m., walking to work: the local carnival-booth stuffed toy distributor (yes, we have a local carnival booth stuffed-toy distributor. Don’t you?), cordoned off with police, flashing lights, barriers… a turquoise Geo Metro had swerved into the store from the opposite lane, crashing into a display of rather large googly-eyed teddy bears, dragons, and generic pink long-bodied mammals, all leaning in and staring almost hungrily at the driver’s seat (it’s my thought that the driver had gone to sleep at the wheel and woken up to all those glassy smiles).

    The next day, I decided to stop cheaping it out and buy a camera phone, darn it.

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