“Dear PoPville,
Friday night I was picking up a delivery held at the Fedex in Admo. I was looking to park and found an alley across the street out of the way of traffic to pull into.
But when I pulled in a man in a parking company jacket said I had to pay $20 to park in his spots. The only indication this alley was a privately owned parking area was the man sitting on his stool at the entrance to the alley, so I pulled through and found a spot at a bank that was closed,
away from where he was charging for cars, but he proceeded to follow me and say that I couldn’t park there either–it was his spot–and if I wanted to stay (even if to run into the Fedex and back out) it would cost me $20. I threatened to call an authority and he to tow me, but this was not an emergency and I didn’t know who to call, so I ended up leaving and finding parking elsewhere. Was this a scam? And if it was (or wasn’t), who do you call to verify if a parking area is private or public?“