Unknown car parking in my driveway.without permission. What would you do?
 

Our home check visited our home in TV today to made sure there was no problem from the storm. In her email she stated that there was a white vehicle parked in our driveway. I don't know anyone who has a white car nor did anyone ask for permission to park there nor did I give anyone permission. With no one being with the car I'd suspect it may be one of our neighbors or one of their guests. I only have the email address of one neighbor although I met and gave my information to a number of them, and would hate to put it on the one I have the email address for, to try and find out who it was and let them know that I'd like them to get permission before parking there, or at least email me that they will be parking there and making sure it was ok so I don't report it to the sheriff's office. I could have just contacted the sheriffs, but at the same time I don't want to start a problem with a neighbor if I don't have to! What would you do in the same situation?

It probably is as you suspect, a guest of a neighbor. One way to look at it is they make it appear that someone is at your house, Skyguy. We have neighbors that visit not all that often and we use their driveway when needed. We do have keys to their home and car so maybe that makes a difference. It's not something we do with any regularity but have done so on occasion. If you are really bothered, can you talk with your neighbors when you are here? I know they will respect your wishes.

We have the same thing when we leave too. Sometimes someone is having a driveway done and know that we aren't there...or

We have a neighbor who bought a couple of years before retiring and their home sits empty. Most of us have parked in their driveway for one reason or another for a short time; a garage-driveway party, extra guests, etc.

If you are really anxious, call the sheriff and ask him to run the plates.

I wouldn't hesitate to email the neighbor that you know.

My first reaction is that it is probably something innocent.

Did your house sitter say whether it was a regular van or a service type van? If it was a service type van, than I would really be worried.

I will drive by tomorrow and look.

If it were me, I'd ask my home watch person to check back in the morning. If the vehicle was still there, I'd ask if they'd mind putting a note on the car explaining - in a polite way - they'd like to know whose vehicle is parking in the driveway. Perhaps leave the home watch person's telephone number or your number.

If they didn't call and still parked there in the future, I'd have the home watch person call the police. That's just me. I'm like you. I wouldn't want to cause trouble with my neighbors, but I wouldn't want to have someone on my property without my permission either.

I don't think you need to be overly hesitant to call the police and have them run the plates, as Gracie says. The vast majority of officers are very professional and can help to handle the mystery very diplomatically. You have no intent to create trouble, you're just trying to find out more information, so you can better determine what to do next. You pay the police to protect you and your property and you're just trying to find out how innocent or not the circumstances are regarding an unknown vehicle parked at your house when you're not there.

Our next door neighbor's boyfriend parked in our driveway when we weren't here. We came one weekend and he was in our driveway. We could get by his car and pull under the carport. He came out within minutes as we were unloading the car, apologized and said he'd move the car.

We told him we didn't mind if he parked there at the end of the drive. Asked him not to block us in and asked if his car leaked oil. lol He never parked there when we were home, but he did when we were gone (before we were FROGs-that sounds nice. We are FROGS!)

Anyway, I felt more secure knowing there was a car in our driveway making it look like someone was home. I told our other-side-neighbor she could let her overflow traffic park in our drive when we aren't home. She thanked me and said she'd be sure to let me know before they did so if we got any phone calls about strange cars in our drive.

Oh..and another thing. One of our neighbors made a list of names and addresses and telephone numbers for our street and included the make and model of car.

I encourage everyone to have such a list.

When our snowbird neighbors fly north in the Spring, they ask us to please park in their driveway so it looks like someone is home.

But, if you don't want any cars in your driveway, you can do what some folks do . . . put a planter or other object smack dab in the middle of the driveway so that no car can park there. But . . . that does tell prospective burglars that the house is vacant.

On my block when one of my snowbird neighbors leave for the season other neighbors often temporarily park in their driveway if there's company or they're working in their garage or whatever. We're a "small community" and everyone knows each others business, pretty much, and we all know each other's cars and watch out for each other. I'm guessing it's someone you know who knows you're gone and didn't think you'd mind. Call one of your friends here and I'm sure you'll get the lowdown pretty quick.

You are the Neighbor that I would like>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Thanks everyone for the advise! I'll probably let it slide and see if it happens again the next time our house watch checks the house.

Handyman! I'll let you know when a neighbor is selling their house! :D

I guess I agree with most answers, but I still think the person should ask. Maybe you scheduled some work to be done and it could not be completed because the car was there, or you decided to come down unexpectedly, or someone else asked and you said sure and then they couldn't. It is reasonable to allow, but also reasonable to expect the person to ask permission.

I always make sure to know the neighbors. That way, if a mystery car is parked in the driveway, I can go ask someone if they know whose car it is. Personally, I live cars in driveways when a house is empty. It gives an appearance of occupancy for strangers in the neighborhood, but not all homeowners do. So, my advice would be to relax and enjoy the fact that your home looks occupied even when empty.

It could have been my car. I park in my neighbors driveways and I have guests park in my neighbors driveways. I also mow my neighbors yards when needed, pick up blown trash, POA newspapers, phone books, solicitations, lawn and pest receipts, tie up leaning trees, etc.

Stated better than I likely would so I will simply say :agree:

I would do what I do, when I find them parked in the dead end in front of my house, I call Community Watch. They will go around and find out who it belongs to and make them move it. If they can't find the owner, they leave a warning note on it.

Army Guy

Uh, as a ret. law enforcement Officer, did anyone think it could be stolen???
I would have the tags checked, but thats just me.

As Sparky said, it could be a stolen car. After having the tags run in a day or two, I would just let it be.

Of course, I am still waiting for the suitcases to be returned:(.

One time when my BIL & SIL was visiting us in TV, someone, probably a neighbor, was suspicious of the unfamiliar car in our driveway and called the sheriff's department.

A deputy ran the plates, then called BIL to ask why the car was there. The deputy also spoke with us to verify. It was handled professionally and we and our visitors were impressed with the community support and security. No harm, no foul.

Personally, I think it's better to be safe than sorry.

Mystery solved
 

Thanks again for all the responses. I finally got ahold of my next door neighbor and found out that another neighbor in a nearby villa was having his driveway painted and parked in the driveway until the paint dried. Now I gotta get ahold of the FBI and call off the dogs! :D

That is the way I would handle it, Pt. In our neighborhood we park in each others drive but only after receiving permission. I keep an eye on a snowbird neighbor's house. If someone calls him to ask permission to use his driveway, he immediately calls me. Otherwise I would call the authorities.

Army Guy, how does Community Watch find out who owns the car? I don't recall giving anyone information on my vehicles.

I don't mean to butt in on Army Guy but I think the CW can have the police check out the registration number. At one time I manage some commercial property in Florida and I could call local law enforcement and they would give me the details based on the registration number.

I hope they don't give out too much info
 

Can you imagine if the police gave out your home address to anyone who called and gave them your car licence number. Say you are at Disney and someone copies down your plate number calls up the cops and then gets your address knowing your not home so they can rob you. Sounds a little off to me,

I can't say about Florida, but in New York I was a Supervising Motor Vehicle Representative for several years. We were not allowed to give information off our records to law enforcement officers in person or over the phone, not even to the state police. On in person requests we were required to send them to another security unit at a different location. I would hope it's the same process in Florida.

Sorry, I think this is a big brouhaha over nothing. I agree that if this had happened in California or New York or ...., I would have had a hissy fit that someone parked in my driveway without permission. However, strangely enough, this is The Villages. It really is a different mindset.

If I see a strange car parked in a driveway either at home or a friend's house, I do knock on doors to find out whose car it is and give them a head's up if I need to get in/out of the garage within the next few days and then let the owners know what's going on. Now, if I can't find anyone laying claim to the car, then it is time to call the police. For TV, parking in driveways is a neighborly thing to do. Have never seen anything like it anywhere else in the world, but it is our own special little bubble.

They don't run the plates etc. They physically go from house to house in the area checking who owns it. That is why if they can not find the owner, they leave one of their warning citations on it. Works very effective. We use to have a very big problem witth the parking, now it is very rare.

Army Guy

....and there it is. Thanks redwitch.

As the OP of this thread, I guess that makes me responsible for this "big brouhaha over nothing!" However, don't expect me to be apologetic anytime soon for having started it so as to not act impulsively upon being notified that someone was using my property without my knowledge or permission without first seeking the opinions or advise of others who have been around TV much longer than I have. I also have to disagree that it was over nothing.

Several years ago I experienced what I would call a traumatic experience involving my father when someone parked on his property in front of his garage. I was at work at the time and was called and told I should get to his house as soon as possible. When I arrived the police were in front of his house and the cop was on the front porch with my upset mother. The cop explained what happened and felt that I should be with my father who was inside the house on the floor, angry and shaking uncontrollably like I had never seen him do before, and stay until he calmed down. He apparently had an emotional breakdown caused by the buildup in anger when he said something to the driver of the illegally parked vehicle and was confronted by him.

Seemingly that driver felt he was entitled to do what he wanted whenever he wanted and wasn't apologetic about it. It took around a couple of hours before we could calm my father down enough so he could get up and move himself to his bed. It was about 3 days later before he got over it enough to finally leave the bed, except for usage of the bathroom, and resume his normal routine.

Hopefully, my sharing that will help you understand why my concern wasn't over nothing. It helped me avoid acting impulsively and possibly incorrectly like I feel my father did.

Also, I have to ask, could it have the potential of being a big deal if it turned out that is was not a neighbor using the driveway, but rather occupancy for some other potentially undesirable purpose. And would it still be a no big deal if the vehicle was there without permission and the oil leaked from the vehicle staining my driveway? I don’t know if it would have been, but it could have. Remember, I did not have the benefit of your experience or the experience of many others here on TOTV when I was notified of the presence of the auto, and I saw the problem through a different prism as a new resident who wasn’t quite sure how to react and simply sought advise!

Skyguy,

I'm so sorry your father had such an upsetting experience, and that you and your family were affected so badly. You are right to ensure that the vehicle on your property was there for innocent purposes. And, by talking it over with us here on TOTV, we all learned from your question, and you were able to hear ideas and opinions from others who had experienced the same circumstance.

Hi Skyguy,
I too am sorry to read about that traumatic event.

I also did not know about either the unique TV custom of driveway-sharing and foraging through other people's trash (I forget the two terms that were used for people who do this).

Both customs struck me on first blush as asking for trouble.

It burglar types knew that neighbors in TV don't report suspicious cars in neighbors driveways, that would seem to make burglary easier to pull off. Likewise when neighbors don't think twice about seeing strangers driving through neighborhoods loading their vehicles with other people's stuff.

As I said, that was my first reaction. I temper it with the knowledge that crime in TV is low. Still, leading not into temptation feels more comfortable to me.

I do not think you can broad brush TV and say everyone parks in their neighbors driveway. Assuming it is a custom is assuming too much.

I don't know about TV, but I think I've heard of foraging being referred to "Dumpster Diving" elsewhere! Believe it or not, my father actually got into that in addition of going around gathering discarded deposit bottles just for something to do and relieve the boredom that came with his retirement. You wouldn't believe what he came home with during the time he was doing it. i.e. brand new articles of clothing, shoes or sneakers (that we suspected were put in the dumpsters of retail stores by employees that could then after hours retrieve/steal them) to probably the most surprising thing of all... XXX Rated Mags. :eek:

Couldn't you also say that 'assuming custom means everone' is also a bit too much?

Hi Bogey,
You are right. I meant a localized custom in the sense of it being done with some regularity here, yet being quite uncommon elsewhere. Specifically, I was responding to the statement, "For TV, parking in driveways is a neighborly thing to do. Have never seen anything like it anywhere else in the world, but it is our own special little bubble."

I didn't mean to imply that everyone in TV does it. Thanks for the clarification.

Sorry, Sky, didn't mean your original post, just some of the comments. I do believe you were right in asking -- you had no clue how common it is here, especially in CYVs and PVs. As I said, anywhere but TV, it's a big deal and I can certainly understand the concern when away from your home and getting such news. Here, it is a matter of asking neighbors whose car it is. If I couldn't get that answered after asking at 3 houses, I'd be on the phone to the police in a heartbeat.

Also, I can't imagine someone using their neighbor's driveway knowing they had an oil leak. I do know of one instant where oil did leak on the driveway and the neighbor paid to have it cleaned up. (FYI -- Simple way to clean it is pour a can of regular Coke on it, let it sit for an hour and then scrub. Also, if the leak has only been there a short time, kitty litter will absorb it.)

TV has a mindset like no other I've seen anywhere in this wonderful world. People share so much -- a dinner party is usually hosted at one home but is nearly always potluck; weekly games are rotated from house to house; parking in a neighbor's driveway seems to be a neighborly thing to do. Heck, I'm still getting used to some of the ways of life here.

Thanks Dee! I appreciate your response. Now I know why your my favorite Village's L..., L..., aah, you know what I mean! :D

BTW, thanks for the Coke tip!
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