Aotearoa / New Zealand

The Auckland-based owner of BeanNGone, Steve Wood, told Stuff that he’d originally contracted Parking Services Ltd, because he was having issues on the land with people parking in front of the truck, or stopping to urinate.

“It seemed easier to hand it over to a local company. It’s not like I benefit from the fines. It’s become a headache and taking up my time as people keep contacting me.” […]

Owner of Parking Services, Jake Thomas, said he didn’t believe people’s reasons.

“They’re all liars. Give someone a parking ticket, and they will come up with no end of excuses.”[…]

Stuff relayed to Thomas the definition of parking, which involved leaving the vehicle or switching off the engine.

He disagreed.

“You must be stupid if you don’t know how parking works, if you put your wheels on private property, doesn’t matter how long or if you keep the engine on, you’re going to be fined. I have a business to run, and I'm here to make money.”

What a fucking parasite. The coffee shop owner thought they were taking normal steps to keep people from pissing in their parking lot, then they wound up with someone who’s so morally corrupt, they don’t realize they should be ashamed, or at least not incriminate themselves. I feel awful for Steve wood, who’s probably lost a LOT of business because he thought he was doing the right thing.

I’ve never been to New Zealand, but this is predatory and dishonest (and Jake Thomas clearly doesn’t know what parking is), so it’s got to be illegal, right? I assume they have a common law system, where this would either be fraud (depending on how much Thomas talks) or the parking fees would be waived.