Neighbour’s response to angry parking note is pure class

That all-too-familiar foe, the busybody neighbour, has been vexing households across the world since time immemorial, whether by spying, eavesdropping, or passive micro-aggressions.

It is therefore satisfying for all of us when we see a next-door nagger given their comeuppance via an act of poise and decorum.

This is what happened when one Reddit user discovered a furious hand-written complaint pinned to their car but refused to take it lying down.

On Thursday, they shared the encounter on the platform, titling it: “Found an angry note on my car today. I replied.”

Within hours it had garnered more than 14,300 upvotes and hundreds of replies, as users praised the response and shared their own parking anecdotes.

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The post consisted of a photo of the neighbour’s original note pictured next to the car-owner’s reply.

The former, scrawled on some lined A5 paper, said: "This is a public car park. You have taken parking spaces for two weeks.

"This is not fair on residents whom rely on this car park. The council have been informed!"

The latter – typed up – read as follows: "To the writer of this note, firstly, I would like to thank you for the vigour with which you are defending residents’ right to park in this public car park.

"I have not taken parking spaces for two weeks, as you claim, but actually two years with this vehicle and six years if we’re including my previous vehicle."

"I agree that it is annoying when there aren’t any spaces left in this car park, however that is the nature of a public car park and it’s something we all have to live with.

"For at least three nights last week I had to park on [road name].

"While I appreciate your opinion, I will be continuing to use this car park, where spaces permit, for the foreseeable future.

"I would have thought that my house being 200ft away from this car park qualified me as a resident.

"If you’d like to discuss this in more detail, I would welcome the opportunity to hear what the council’s response was to being informed that a car has parked in a public car park."

The car-owner posted the exhange on Reddit

Fellow Redditors hailed its firm, courteous and decidedly British tone, as many described similar personal experiences.

"This is a PUBLIC car park, therefore only certain people are allowed to use it,” one wrote.

“Reminds me of the time someone left a note on my flatmate’s car, adamant that the parking was residents only and that he should use the public car park two streets down... Except the car park two streets down is actually private, it’s not residents only parking, and well, even if it was he bloody lives there.”

Another recalled: “There was a woman where I used to live that would post photos of my disabled father’s car parked in a disabled spot, in a Facebook group. A few times he put his badges on the car and he was still ridiculed. Some people actually have zero intelligence.”

And third said: “My sister was hounded for a while by a FB group for parking in a disabled bay (with a badge). So much speculation on what’s ‘wrong’ with her and digs at scroungers on benefits. It really broke her for a while.”

All we can say is public parking should be exactly that: public and open to everyone.