Not only did he destroy his car, he wrecked into another car, too.
An Austin, TX based valet parker on TikTok, who goes by @.kkpenny, shared the harebrained moment a guest, who decided to self-park his car, tried to skip paying his parking garage bill by lifting the swing arm gate keeping him in. His method involved him putting his Lexus in drive, then neutral. With his car inching forward on its own, he could lift the articulating arm and still jump into the driver’s seat.
He obviously didn’t think his plan out because right after the parking kiosk is a gradual decline to street-level parking. Gravity does what it does best and sends this idiot’s Lexus careening down to the first floor, only stopped by another parked car.
Check out the video for yourself on TikTok below. Just in case that video goes down, there’s a mirror here and another one on Reddit.
@.kkpenny Life as a Valet Driver, what i witness everyday!? He didn’t think that one through ##FYP ##Austin##Texas ##comedy ##viral##thankgivingclapback ##Cars
♬ Oh No – Kreepa
Penny clears up some misconceptions in the comments and adds her .02,
“This was not another valet driver, this was just a dumb guest who didn’t think it through.
I got the concept of what he was thinking, but he didn’t think to put the parking brake up to at least slow it down.”
Several other commenters cheekily pointed out how Kinetic energy is defined as mgh and how this Lexus driver clearly forgot about g, or acceleration due to gravity.
I know how easy it is to push a car by myself on a flat surface and how inclines and declines increase the difficulty “exponentially.” People underestimate just how heavy a car is. When physics comes into the picture, rolling objects that weigh upwards of two-tons carry a lot of potential energy.
While parking garages can get pricey, we’re talking about Austin here, it’s not exactly San Francisco or Downtown Los Angeles. Looking at rates on Parkopedia in Austin, if he parked for three hours, he’s potentially sweating over $20.
Let this be a cautionary tale to you cheap-skates. If you can’t pay for a parking garage, find cheaper parking elsewhere. He tried to saving a couple of bucks but will now end up with a higher insurance rate that will cost him for years.
