The $2 Check Revenge: How One Driver Out-Pettied a Predatory Parking Lot
Downtown parking: a world where your wallet weeps and your sanity is tested. For one unlucky diner, a simple meal turned into a high-stakes game of financial cat and mouse with a parking lot company wielding fees like throwing stars. But when the lot tried to squeeze $80 for a mere 30-minute overstay, the driver didn’t just grumble and pay—he fought back with the pettiest weapon possible: dozens of $2 checks.
It’s the kind of delicious revenge that makes you want to park illegally just for the story. Here’s how one Redditor turned a parking punishment into a paperwork nightmare—and what the online crowd had to say about it.
When 30 Minutes Costs More Than Dinner
Our story starts, as so many downtown tales do, with a hunt for parking. Reddit user u/fujoboo paid for two hours in a crowded lot—roughly $30 for the privilege. But fate (and maybe dessert) intervened, and their car overstayed by thirty measly minutes.
No big deal, right? Wrong. As u/dmcneil99 exclaimed, “That is a crazy amount for 30 minutes!” A week later, u/fujoboo received an $80 bill for the extra half hour. That’s not a typo: $80 for 30 minutes. Even after a heated phone call, the "generous" company shaved off $20, settling on a $60 charge.
The kicker? There was no option to just pay a little extra for the overage. As u/DeaconBlues pointed out, many lots default to a full-day rate or slap you with an arbitrary penalty for even the smallest infraction. The system seems almost designed to frustrate.
Petty Compliance: The $2 Check Gambit
Faced with a predatory fee, u/fujoboo didn’t storm the lot or start a ranty social campaign. Instead, they reached for their checkbook and dialed the petty up to eleven: 30 monthly payments of $2 each, meticulously scheduled from their bank account.
Cue the slow clap from the r/MaliciousCompliance crowd. As u/0DarkFreezing put it, “OP, that’s a good level of petty.” There’s something poetic about making a bureaucracy work for its ill-gotten gains, one tiny check at a time.
And it worked. After ten months, the company surrendered. They mailed back the 11th check with a note: account paid in full. They would rather eat the remaining $40 than process twenty more micro-payments.
Why Not Just Ignore the Fee? The Community Weighs In
Some commenters wondered: why pay at all? “Why did you pay them anything? Make them take you to court for it. They'd just write it off,” asked u/NoSloppySteaks, echoing a sentiment shared by others. In many cities, private parking lot tickets are more bark than bite—they’re not government tickets and often lack real teeth.
But u/fujoboo clarified their reasoning: “I didn’t want to risk it somehow making it to my credit report as a delinquent account.” Not everyone is comfortable with the nuclear option, especially when credit scores and collection agencies lurk in the shadows. u/Ok-Computer1234567 chimed in with a pro tip: if it does go to collections, a well-timed dispute usually kills it, and even if you pay, settlements are often sliced in half.
Others shared war stories from the parking battlefield. u/eastcoastsunrise recounted an infuriating saga where paying after the fact resulted in a $168 bill (“They had the audacity to reply and say ‘yeah but you didn’t PRE-PAY when you arrived so you owe the full amount in the notice.’ lol wut.”). The crowd agreed: private parking enforcement is often arbitrary, aggressive, and, frankly, absurd.
When Parking Becomes a Global Grievance
It’s not just an American problem. Commenters from Australia and Canada joined in, noting that private parking outfits rarely have legal standing in their countries. As u/ShatterStorm76 explained, in Australia, “You can completely ignore the ‘Fine’ because only Govt authorities can fine over here.” The ticket is just a demand for damages—good luck collecting that in court.
Even the mechanics of payment sparked international curiosity. “What I find weird about this as a non-American is that scheduling payments results in checks being mailed. This must cost the bank a bit,” mused u/camh-. In some places, everything’s electronic, and no one would blink at a string of micro-payments. But in the U.S., paper checks still have the power to inflict pain—on both the payer and the payee.
The Petty Win We All Needed
Was it the most efficient solution? Maybe not. But as one commenter summed it up, “That’s a good level of petty.” Sometimes, fighting back isn’t about winning money—it’s about winning satisfaction. For every driver who’s been gouged by a parking lot company, u/fujoboo’s story is a small, satisfying victory.
So next time you’re staring down an outrageous parking penalty, remember: you can fight back, even if it’s two bucks at a time. And if nothing else, you’ll have a story worth telling.
What’s your pettiest win against bureaucracy or a big company? Drop your tales of revenge and resistance below!
Original Reddit Post: Parked for 30 minutes longer than I paid for