This parking lot saver vanquisher acknowledges that, although petty, it was absolutely worth it.

SF resident and Redditor /u/finekettleofish shared dashcam footage from this New Year (Jan 1, 2025) to the /r/SanFrancisco subreddit showing a rare case of someone defeating a would-be parking lot saver.

How’d he defeat the parking lot saver? By being that much more petty than the man trying to save a spot.

Oh, and he didn’t want to make his wife walk farther than she had to.

Check out OP’s dashcam video embedded below with their original thread linked here.

The incident happened in the 00 block of W Portal Ave across from Calibur Inc (Exact location on Google Maps linked here.)

As the dashcam footage shows, OP pulls up to a restaurant on W Portal Ave where he and his wife had ordered food they’re now picking up.

What he thought was an open spot was, in fact, being saved by a parking saver (some guy standing in front of it, saving it for his friend somewhere else.)

OP recounts the conversation which played out exactly as you thought.

 “I don’t care. My friend will be here soon. You need to leave so they can park here,” says the parking saver when told this is a public spot he can’t save.

“Eventually, his friend showed up, blocking two lanes and honking at me. By that point, my wife had already hopped out to pick up the food we were there for. I refused to move and they left. The spot saver, now clearly annoyed, stepped aside, and I parked.”

“Was it petty? Probably. Was it worth it? Absolutely.”

Why am I sharing this? To make it clear: if you’re trying to save a public parking spot, you’re in the wrong—period.”

“I value this level of petty obstinacy,” the top-rated comment from /u/John_Kay_Say_Hey reads.

“I run into these guys on my motorcycle and I pull up right next to them and park in the spot. Pretty funny to watch them fume and see their “friend” show up.,” /u/local /u/j12 adds.

“I used to be petty like that, but mostly stopped after someone aggressively chased my car with me and my pregnant ex-wife inside. I don’t even honk anymore if there is anyone inside my car, even if I’m alone. Getting randomly injured or worse is not worth it in my opinion,” /u/justid_177 countered.

/u/justID_177 brought up a good point as a reply to that comment from another Redditor who shared how one of his friends literally got stabbed and ended up dyng from a similar situation.

While I applaud OP standing up to what’s essentially a bully of the lowest order, this is a case of choosing your own battles.

Most will get upset over someone being this petty but will get over it within an hour.

We can only hope that karmic justice in the form of the proper authorities dealing with them is doled out.

Anyone saving a parking spot with another object can be found in violation of Vehicle Code VEH § 23112.7 which pertains to illegal dumping, violators are subject to a minimum $2,000 fine.

More relevant, impeding the right of way of a vehicle is violating California Vehicle Code § 21954 CVC, violators are subject to a fine of around $286 and one point on their driving record if applicable.