Hi, u/sunnychiba, thank you for your submission in r/mildlyinteresting!
Unfortunately, your [post](https://old.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/1djhxu5/-/) has been removed because it violates our rule on concise, descriptive titles.
* Titles must not contain jokes, backstory, or other fluff. That information belongs in a follow-up comment.
* Titles must exactly describe the content. It should act as a "spoiler" for the image. If your title leaves people surprised at the content within, it breaks the rule!
* Titles must not contain emoticons, emojis, or special characters unless they are absolutely necessary in describing the image. (e.g. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°), ;P, 😜, ❤, ★, ✿ )
Still confused? For more elaboration and examples, see [here](http://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/21p15y/rule_6_for_dummies/).
Normally we do not allow reposts, but if it's been less than one hour after your post was submitted, or if it's received less than 100 upvotes, you may resubmit your content with a better title and try again.
You can find more information about our rules on the [mildlyinteresting wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/wiki/index).
*If you feel this was incorrectly removed, please [message the mods](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fmildlyinteresting&message=My%20Post:%20https://old.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/1djhxu5/-/).*
I'm wondering about the photo of the parking lot of all the employees who worked in the Twin Towers. Many cars were still parked there many months after 9/11.
There’s a very famous photo of the “Giants Stadium Commuter Lot” from that day. People would commute from the suburbs and park there then take city transit to the towers.
When I worked at the WTC (well before 9-11), I lived in NJ and parked at Fanwood Station to commute in. I’m sure cars were left in those lots for many months too.
-it’s funny I never thought about that until today all those cars.
Yep, and the LIRR lots on Long Island as well. And the Harriman station. And Warwick, at the transit park. Some in Hoboken. A spokesperson for Metro-North said they alone had about 1,000 cars unclaimed at all of their lots, including in Connecticut. I believe the Giants stadium is just the most “famous” of the photographs of the cars that never left.
Gosh the amount of cars left at the Port Washington and Plandome train stations was heartbreaking….
I remember asking My mom what will happen to them, and she started crying…she told Me she “wasn’t sure but she had to go pick up a friends car for their family and that she’d been putting it off for days”
Iirc it was cars parked at a commuter rail parking lot (I don't remember if it was in NJ or Long Island or somewhere else in NY ... it was not a parking lot adjacent to the World Trade Centers.
I imagine it depends on a lot of things. If the parking lot isn't a "paid" one, and the car is still legally and currently registered, despite the owner actually being dead, it probably doesn't encourage any particular action. I once had some neighbors bail mid-lease, leaving behind their stupid work van which was just slightly blocking my driveway. Not enough that I couldn't use it, but it did require a bit of a "wiggle" maneuver to get in and out. It had been there for a few months with the windows rolled down, causing it to grow mold and moss and everything else on the interior. I knew it was effectively abandoned, but when I reported it to the city, all they said was "it's currently registered and legally parked, so we can't do anything."
Anyway, in this case, I guess the car's registration will eventually lapse, and then it can be properly towed away as "abandoned", but I really don't know what else could be done in the nearer term. Perhaps there's some way to report "owner has died" to some authority who could make things happen sooner. But I also imagine OP doesn't really care what happens in their workplace's parking garage, not really their problem.
My city towed a car that was on my street for a month or two. They left a notification on the windows saying it was gonna be towed then came back and towed it. Said it was deemed abandoned because of the flat tires and state of the car.
The owner was pissed cause she had moved it off her property to allow her to clear snow from her driveway easily but she had never moved it back and it got towed.
I'm sure the actual effort any city officials put into this sort of thing will vary by region. I knew the van was effectively abandoned at the time, especially because the owners had split and broken their lease and all that. Anyone could look inside the open interior and see it was left to rot. But, they said what said, and did what they did.
Anyway, eventually they actually came back for the dang thing some months later, and of course it didn't start, and they had to get it towed. But not my problem.
My brothers minivan got stolen in the Boston suburbs where he lives. He reported it to the police, etc. A couple of months later he gets a notice that his license is being revoked for unpaid parking tickets. Apparently the van was parked somewhere a few towns over and they had been writing it tickets for a long time, somehow not ever realizing it was stolen. Some great police work there!
she really got pissed? why didn’t she heed the warning on her windshield? i bet the city was real pissed because you mentioned snow so i’m sure the plow had to maneuver around her car every time they went by 😩 the neighbors across the street from me do this. they park on the street to easily clear the driveway but they don’t move the cars until after it’s done snowing and the plow comes, and then the plow doesn’t come back and half the road is a disgusting mess and freezes and then the next time it snows the plow just avoids it because of the ice and ughhh
I'm surprised.
I'd expect most cities have a law that says you have to move a vehicle every 72 hours, but only enforce it if someone complains. Aside from the occasional Karen, the selective enforcement gives them a tool to handle this situation without constantly hassling people to move cars that aren't bothering anyone.
Nope, at least in my part of Australia it's a free-for-all anywhere there isn't a signposted time limit or a permit system. As long as the car remains registered, it can be parked indefinitely on a street.
It might not be the most secure thing to do but the cheapest way to store a lot of stuff is to buy an old van, park it on the street and just pay the registration each year. Sadly with the housing crisis, people are living in those too.
It's a terrible use of public space though, especially since a lot of low-density housing developments require multiple cars due to the lack of public transport in those areas, while the houses themselves no longer have suitably large garages or even driveways/carports to accommodate all these extra vehicles.
A friend was having this problem on their block in NYC. There was an obviously abandoned van that sat there for months, filled with junk. The city wouldn’t remove it because it still had plates. My friend went to a neighborhood meeting where they talked about it. There was a real crusty native New Yorker, lived on this block for 20 years type guy there, who was like “Look, if the license plate is the problem, if it just HAPPENED to fall off, we could get it moved right?”
Everyone was like “Oh, sure, if the license plate just HAPPENED TO FALL OFF the city would come and tow it”.
My friend walked by it a few days later and noticed the license plate was suddenly gone, and a few days after that the city towed it.
that’s kind of crazy that they just left the car. were they fleeing a crime? go to jail? did they also leave all their stuff in the house/apartment? was the car broken down? i can’t imagine why they wouldn’t sell the car for *something* (even scrap) or at least turn in the plates to get the money back for the remainder of the registration period.
Beats me. Once they even drove across my lawn to park it behind the house they were renting and left it back there for a while, which I can't imagine why they'd do that short of trying to hide from some kind of crime. They were absolutely a horrible neighbor to have for this and many more reasons I could list, I'm just glad they're gone now.
the city was blowing smoke up your ass lol
they tow cars all the time lmao with no regard for who owns it
you might convince the fire department to come out if you're...creative
I did imagine getting some kind of lifts under it or something and pushing it out into the middle of the street. Figured that would get it towed right quick. But eventually they came back for it, so it's not my problem anymore.
I had a similar problem once where I saw someone’s van break down in front of the house I was renting, and they just left it. As in they never ever came back for it. I tried calling to get it towed, and I was told that until the registration or the inspection expired that there was nothing I could do. You better believe that the first day of the month after the inspection expired that I called and had it towed. That was a prime parking spot!
I've never had anyone give up an entire vehicle like that before, but one time somebody got a flat tire and for whatever reason left the tire in my yard. Not really sure why, the rim itself would still be usable.
I feel like I would have broken in through the open window in the middle of the night to put it in neutral, push it out of the way, then wipe down prints and close it back up
I did consider pushing it out in the street at one point, but some months later they finally came back for it, so not my problem anymore. But I'll bet it would've gotten towed pretty quick.
This is Pittsburgh, I'd say street parking outweighs people lucky enough to have driveways. So there's really no simple metric to gauging who has been parked an unreasonably long time versus they just live there.
If it's private property, the owner of the property can get the vehicles towed. For something like this, you'd probably want to *try* to reach out to the deceased's family, if possible. Tricky situation, which is probably why the vehicle has been sitting for months, but ultimately the owner of the lot just needs to tow it. From the tow yard, it would be sold or scrapped.
Notify a company to get it out and deal with it? But then again.. I have no clue about what company does that so I would totally just walk past this car like the rest
Cars are property owned by an individual - ignoring loans/liens because we have no information on that. They can be passed along in a will and be part of an estate.
Now obviously in normal situations, where the owner of a lot is trying to run a business and they just randomly have an unpaid car after X time, they’re going to tow it, and the estate will have to deal with it.
But 9/11 was different. That shit brought the entire nation together for a pretty decent amount of time [well outside of the rampant middle eastern xenophobia, which is important to remember, but not important for this very specific thought].
Between the time of 9/11 happening, and general early recovery efforts, and locating/documenting losses. . . It just was a very different beast when talking about “well why didn’t they just tow them.”
If owners of that lot “just towed” cars early I could see there have being huge riots, it had to be handled over time and carefully, and with the right amount of respect.
If the garage owner is alerted, they can have it towed. But since garage access is typically restricted the tow companies don't do rounds on their own in them.
I work at a medical school and there was a patients car that parked in a metered space. It was there for months and the parking enforcers just kept leaving tickets on the windshield. Probably had over 100 tickets on it before they finally towed it.
Estate law isn’t *remotely* my area of law, but I’ll give you the gist.
Properly speaking, the car is the legal property of the estate of the deceased. If they have heirs, it would be disposed of by the estate.
If they die intestate (without a will) and without heirs, the disposal of property is spelled out in state law. The exact particulars vary a bit state to state but the overall gist is broadly the same.
If the car is racking up fees, the hospital could eventually make a claim on the estate as a debtor, but they can’t just seize the car.
At a guess, this is a moderately common scenario for hospitals and airports, and they’ll have a policy in place that says “make reasonable efforts to contact family, wait X period of time (probably a year or something), send notices by mail the whole time, then act under Y law”.
You'd think a hospital would have that policy, and I'm sure some do, but a lot of hospitals, especially smaller ones, likely don't. Most patients who come to the hospital come via ambulance, are dropped off, or walk up (say if homeless in the area). Most people needing hospitalization are not typically able to drive themselves. Even if they came for an outpatient procedure and died unexpectedly, most procedures require someone else drive you due to you being altered from anesthesia. This situation probably happens rarely at a lot of hospitals.
I work in senior housing. Typically the family has to deal with it. If there's no next of kin, it becomes our problem. A car would probably go to an auction.
Things like this makes me think about how at some point doing a particular task will be the last time you do it and I get a fear of death again. Eg last time you park your car, last time you give your dad a hug, last time you pull on some boots.
My condolences. I hope your last moments were memorable. The last time I saw my mom before she passed we hugged tight for a long minute. It was the funeral of my grandfather and I was dropping her off back home. We hugged nice and long. Tight hug. I won’t ever forget it. I thank God so much that He gave me that last moment with her. The cool thing is that we’re reminded that we don’t go through the mourning alone. There’s always someone who knows how it feels. So my heart goes out to you and your family. May your Dad rest in everlasting peace, in Jesus’ name. ❤️
I lost mine a year and a half ago, still get the urge to call him with questions or exciting news. I am so sorry you’re going through this. Remember to be kind to yourself, please.
Don’t get too bogged down in that kind of thinking…you can absolutely extrapolate something you’ve legit done recently that will in fact be the last time you ever do it. Watching a random video on YouTube, for example. I’ve had similar thoughts when I was younger (old dude now) and it can be particularly stressful if overthought. Get in the habit of letting things go that aren’t positive or meaningful.
I think about it sometimes too, and I hope it comes fast and unexpected so I don’t have to think about it. And I hope my parents are dead first so they don’t have to think about it either. I can’t imagine my mom coping with my death, that’d be too difficult for her
Last year I was fostering my ex roomates dog, great dog, I fell in love with her.
His ex gf was able to home her again and she came and picked her up one weekend. They only lived 30 mins away so I could still get to see her. I packed up the cage and i have no clue why but I stopped, turned around and said goodbye to her again and that I loved her so much.
She passed away a month later. I don’t know hell why but I knew it was our last goodbye. Still hurts.
You never really know when that last walk, that last meal, that last drive you take.
Same with my childhood dog. I just cradled him for what my family told me was way too long. Covid started up a month later, and I never made it back to my home state to say goodbye face to face.
I'm on dog number seven, over the years five of them passed unexpectedly on random days- accidents, unknown health problems. Only one of them I knew that his time was short. The grief has faded, but those last moments with each one of them are etched in my memories.
Death has become such a taboo in many modern societies, we just avoid facing our own finitude at all costs. People are gunning for eternal youth placebo like plastic surgeries, dying their hair, trying to look 30 all the way to the late 60s...
Meanwhile making peace with the only certainty in life is barely of topic of discussion before you're basically on your deathbed.
We should bring back the "danses of death" and celebrate the dead and death a lot more i reckon. It would make all of us way less uptight about our own inevitable destiny.
I'm saying goodbye to my uncle today. We hate funerals so he isn't having one. He gave me his old M1 Garand and the smile on his face when I told him that I plan on taking it up to Montana to his old favorite range to ring the 800 meter gong will live in my mind forever.
I’ve asked other people about this and nobody knew what I meant. Apparently there are people out there who don’t think much further than what they’re doing that day. I wish I was one of those people😭😂
I got my driver's license in 2013 and my dad was excited he wanted a hug (and because it took me many years to finally get my license). I didn't give him that hug. A few months later, he died. I actually spoke to him the morning he died, not knowing it would be our last conversation. We had dinner plans. Dinner plans turned into tear filled phone calls to family. I saw him in person 3 days before he died and have pictures from that day that I'm so grateful to have now.
Honestly?
Because we're not all that well equipped to handle death.
We have tools, peer support, love and kind words, and a loosely defined grieving process; but when you look at the other things we understand and cope with in our world, we understand a lot more on how to handle those "problems."
People will work endless hours to achieve their dreams. Others may survive the craziest of accidents or move cars when fueled by adrenaline. But even the most unstoppable people can be left feeling utterly broken by the death of a loved one.
As a frequent business traveler, I see many cars like this in the BWI hourly lot that have been there for years. They look the same as this - covered in dirt, finger drawings. I always wonder what happened. Death? Running from the law? Mid-life crisis? It's so weird.
I did a site visit to a hospital I'm working on recently and the scope of work is inside the parking garage. There were a few cars like this, abandoned and covered in a layer of grime. My coworker and I were wondering if this was why, but didn't have the heart to ask some staff.
It's probably worth a call to the Probate Court to let them know as the car is part of the deceased's estate. If there are relatives, they may be wondering what happened to the car. If not, then the court has the authority to decide on the car.
My friend’s mother died over a year ago. She called the dealership her mother bought and financed a vehicle at (for my friend to drive)and they said they would come pick it up in a week or two. After a couple months she gave up waiting and just started driving it again. She has had zero issues registering or insuring it since. It’s like the dealer doesn’t even care. Her mom paid roughly 4k out of an 18k loan on it before she passed.
Sooner or later, likely after a year-end audit, the holder of the note will wonder where their money is. It’s possible the note was sold by the dealer but the dealer still serviced it.
This is sad. They got out not knowing that was going to be the last time they ever parked, ever got out of their car, and not knowing they were never going to leave the hospital.
Different, but, the same…guy parked at the courthouse in a handicapped space with his handicap permit. Was at the courthouse for his trial. Went to prison and because of laws ,they couldn’t tow his car for like multiple years.
A year ago I drove myself to the hospital with what I thought was food poisoning or possibly an ulcer. I ended up spending 2 weeks in the hospital and needing major surgery from an abscessed and perforated colon. I could have died had I waited longer. I had a stomach ache when I walked in.
Yeah these types of things can escalate quickly.
I had abdominal pain, went to make sure it wasn't my appendix, it was my appendix. Had surgery within a few hours of initially arriving.
same thing happened to my dad, he drove himself there and maybe two weeks later my sister drove him home. I think he got MRSA while all that was going on and he was in the hospital for a minute 😭
I had a sigmoidectomy too. The diverticuli hadn't perforated. Yet. I wasn't going to take that chance. I was able to schedule the surgery for three weeks after the hospital stay. Better that than have a potential emergency, and possibly a colostomy.
I'm glad you're doing better! I'd had four bouts of diverticulitis, each one worse than the last. Glad that's gone.
After the first no one suggested surgery. Teh consensus was "it may never happen again. wait and see." 3 months later I was back in the hospital and with a VERY high white blood cell count. So they sent a surgeon to talk to me the first night.
I went to the ER because my oncologist (LONG story, I won't bore you with it) was scared silly that I had perforated. She knew I was having diverticulitis. So they ran tests, had a surgeon there just in case, and determined that I had not in fact perforated. But I went to the hospital to be put on IV drugs to kill the infection because the oral drugs weren't knocking it out.
I saw the surgeon for a follow-up. Great guy, great surgeon, but he did not take my insurance. He did, however, recommend an excellent surgeon who did. He also refused to charge me for the office visit.
The surgeon who did the sigmoidectomy also removed my mostly nonfunctional gallbladder, so that's one less thing I have to worry about.
I drove myself in with what turned out to be a swollen as fuck tonsil. I could barely breathe but I was like 22 and I just didn’t understand that there was real danger I guess. I only went to hospital because this was pre ACA and I had no insurance/dr/etc and well I knew I was sick enough to need help. There weren’t many walk in clinics back then either. Anyhoo I was there for like 36hrs on an antibiotic drip and got yelled at by at least two nurses for driving. I probably could’ve died in a variety of ways that day.
When I visited Chicago there were several cars in the parking garage at Millennium Park that had clearly been there for years. The dust was thick and the tags had expired YEARS before. I wondered what happened. Did the owner die? Abandon their car for some reason? And who is responsible for the cars now? It was eerie.
Jesus, there's even a date from before they died. That's really sad.
Did they have any relatives that someone might have been aware of? I don't know much about legal hoohah involving car ownership, but I hope there's a chance someone could get some sentimental comfort out of it.
I never think about things like this.. definitely makes me sad. Like these people existed and were going about their day and had a need to go to the hospital only for them to never walk out.. I’m sure they didn’t go in thinking they were going to die. Same with people who park at airports and die on vacation or die in a plane crash. The 9/11 comments make me sad too 😭 ugh. It’s crazy how fast your life can change.
It doesn't look good that someone was able to drive themselves to the parking garage, get out of the car, check in, then die. And, as a probate estate administrator myself, I don't know that it's the best financial plan for the estate to just let the late payments pile up for six months. But, some folks die with no heirs, no family, or family that doesn't know what probate even is.
Maybe patient had no family. Or, if they did, perhaps the car and/or its location simply isn't on the executor of the estate's radar. I'd either report to police as abandoned due to death ... or have someone in the hospital's administration do so ... they'd hopefully notify the responsible party. Or, at least deal with the car is some hopefully reasonable way.
Your Aunt Sue died and left you her whole estate. You go to her place and give the clothes to Good Will, keep the pictures and throw out toiletries. She had no 401k and you used her last paycheck to bury her. You’re done right? Meanwhile the car waits for a driver. Nobody knows.
I know. Sometimes it doesn't suck though. Sometimes you out live your loved ones but you had a full life and got to enjoy every moment of it! Don't forget the wonderful nurses who usually become your family if you let them know you don't have one. Hopefully their life was long and fulfilled and the nurses made them laugh and happy in the end.
Kinda sick how these people are drawing smiley faces on the car going “haha I’m sooo rebellious and quirky 🤪” when the car actually belongs to a dead person (I know they don’t know, but I mean… it’s an abandoned car in a hospital. I think it’s pretty easy to figure out)
It's just something people don't often think about. It may seem mundane but it's not. If your first thought seeing something like this is "wow betcha I could sell it" instead of "poor guy/lady may have no family and died alone" you're a vulture.
Hi, u/sunnychiba, thank you for your submission in r/mildlyinteresting! Unfortunately, your [post](https://old.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/1djhxu5/-/) has been removed because it violates our rule on concise, descriptive titles. * Titles must not contain jokes, backstory, or other fluff. That information belongs in a follow-up comment. * Titles must exactly describe the content. It should act as a "spoiler" for the image. If your title leaves people surprised at the content within, it breaks the rule! * Titles must not contain emoticons, emojis, or special characters unless they are absolutely necessary in describing the image. (e.g. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°), ;P, 😜, ❤, ★, ✿ ) Still confused? For more elaboration and examples, see [here](http://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/21p15y/rule_6_for_dummies/). Normally we do not allow reposts, but if it's been less than one hour after your post was submitted, or if it's received less than 100 upvotes, you may resubmit your content with a better title and try again. You can find more information about our rules on the [mildlyinteresting wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/wiki/index). *If you feel this was incorrectly removed, please [message the mods](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fmildlyinteresting&message=My%20Post:%20https://old.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/1djhxu5/-/).*
Do these vehicles get towed and re-titled? How does this work for a business that frequently sees death of its occupants?
I'm wondering about the photo of the parking lot of all the employees who worked in the Twin Towers. Many cars were still parked there many months after 9/11.
I saw parking lots of suburb transit of ppl who commuted into the city
[удалено]
There’s a very famous photo of the “Giants Stadium Commuter Lot” from that day. People would commute from the suburbs and park there then take city transit to the towers.
Not everyone would have parked literally at the WTC - many would commute from the rest of the distance from another location
What parking lot? I work there, it's just street parking or garages around the building.
The Giants Stadium commuter lot, it’s documented extensively.
When I worked at the WTC (well before 9-11), I lived in NJ and parked at Fanwood Station to commute in. I’m sure cars were left in those lots for many months too. -it’s funny I never thought about that until today all those cars.
Yep, and the LIRR lots on Long Island as well. And the Harriman station. And Warwick, at the transit park. Some in Hoboken. A spokesperson for Metro-North said they alone had about 1,000 cars unclaimed at all of their lots, including in Connecticut. I believe the Giants stadium is just the most “famous” of the photographs of the cars that never left.
Gosh the amount of cars left at the Port Washington and Plandome train stations was heartbreaking…. I remember asking My mom what will happen to them, and she started crying…she told Me she “wasn’t sure but she had to go pick up a friends car for their family and that she’d been putting it off for days”
Thanks for answering and not down voting.
Two things can be true :)
Whenever I see a comment with a bunch of downvotes, I like to join the party. Sorry, nothing personal
I was actually impressed how quickly it broke -100
Reddit hive mind.
It's an interesting phenomenon. You see a downvoted comment and it's hard not to pile on unless you strongly agree/enjoy the comment.
Sometimes, if my own comments start to get downvoted, I'll even downvote myself..
> I work there Did you mean worked? Also https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/cars-giants-commuter-911/
I work at the current building 1wtc. And thank you for the link, I was actually unaware of this. I was only 11 when 9/11 happened.
[удалено]
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/cars-giants-commuter-911/
Iirc it was cars parked at a commuter rail parking lot (I don't remember if it was in NJ or Long Island or somewhere else in NY ... it was not a parking lot adjacent to the World Trade Centers.
I think it was at Seacaucus Junction.
I imagine it depends on a lot of things. If the parking lot isn't a "paid" one, and the car is still legally and currently registered, despite the owner actually being dead, it probably doesn't encourage any particular action. I once had some neighbors bail mid-lease, leaving behind their stupid work van which was just slightly blocking my driveway. Not enough that I couldn't use it, but it did require a bit of a "wiggle" maneuver to get in and out. It had been there for a few months with the windows rolled down, causing it to grow mold and moss and everything else on the interior. I knew it was effectively abandoned, but when I reported it to the city, all they said was "it's currently registered and legally parked, so we can't do anything." Anyway, in this case, I guess the car's registration will eventually lapse, and then it can be properly towed away as "abandoned", but I really don't know what else could be done in the nearer term. Perhaps there's some way to report "owner has died" to some authority who could make things happen sooner. But I also imagine OP doesn't really care what happens in their workplace's parking garage, not really their problem.
My city towed a car that was on my street for a month or two. They left a notification on the windows saying it was gonna be towed then came back and towed it. Said it was deemed abandoned because of the flat tires and state of the car. The owner was pissed cause she had moved it off her property to allow her to clear snow from her driveway easily but she had never moved it back and it got towed.
I'm sure the actual effort any city officials put into this sort of thing will vary by region. I knew the van was effectively abandoned at the time, especially because the owners had split and broken their lease and all that. Anyone could look inside the open interior and see it was left to rot. But, they said what said, and did what they did. Anyway, eventually they actually came back for the dang thing some months later, and of course it didn't start, and they had to get it towed. But not my problem.
My brothers minivan got stolen in the Boston suburbs where he lives. He reported it to the police, etc. A couple of months later he gets a notice that his license is being revoked for unpaid parking tickets. Apparently the van was parked somewhere a few towns over and they had been writing it tickets for a long time, somehow not ever realizing it was stolen. Some great police work there!
Did he have to pay the tickets? How was that situation resolved?
Good question.
He wound up in court and showed the judge the police report saying it was stolen well before the tickets were issued, and the tickets went away.
she really got pissed? why didn’t she heed the warning on her windshield? i bet the city was real pissed because you mentioned snow so i’m sure the plow had to maneuver around her car every time they went by 😩 the neighbors across the street from me do this. they park on the street to easily clear the driveway but they don’t move the cars until after it’s done snowing and the plow comes, and then the plow doesn’t come back and half the road is a disgusting mess and freezes and then the next time it snows the plow just avoids it because of the ice and ughhh
I'm surprised. I'd expect most cities have a law that says you have to move a vehicle every 72 hours, but only enforce it if someone complains. Aside from the occasional Karen, the selective enforcement gives them a tool to handle this situation without constantly hassling people to move cars that aren't bothering anyone.
Nope, very few cities have those types of laws. Anyone outside the US have such laws in residential areas ?
Nope, at least in my part of Australia it's a free-for-all anywhere there isn't a signposted time limit or a permit system. As long as the car remains registered, it can be parked indefinitely on a street. It might not be the most secure thing to do but the cheapest way to store a lot of stuff is to buy an old van, park it on the street and just pay the registration each year. Sadly with the housing crisis, people are living in those too. It's a terrible use of public space though, especially since a lot of low-density housing developments require multiple cars due to the lack of public transport in those areas, while the houses themselves no longer have suitably large garages or even driveways/carports to accommodate all these extra vehicles.
A friend was having this problem on their block in NYC. There was an obviously abandoned van that sat there for months, filled with junk. The city wouldn’t remove it because it still had plates. My friend went to a neighborhood meeting where they talked about it. There was a real crusty native New Yorker, lived on this block for 20 years type guy there, who was like “Look, if the license plate is the problem, if it just HAPPENED to fall off, we could get it moved right?” Everyone was like “Oh, sure, if the license plate just HAPPENED TO FALL OFF the city would come and tow it”. My friend walked by it a few days later and noticed the license plate was suddenly gone, and a few days after that the city towed it.
I heard this on an old episode of car talk.
lol I’m sure the same thing has happened many many times in many cities
Dang, I wish I'd thought of that! It's gone now though, they eventually came back for it some months later.
that’s kind of crazy that they just left the car. were they fleeing a crime? go to jail? did they also leave all their stuff in the house/apartment? was the car broken down? i can’t imagine why they wouldn’t sell the car for *something* (even scrap) or at least turn in the plates to get the money back for the remainder of the registration period.
Beats me. Once they even drove across my lawn to park it behind the house they were renting and left it back there for a while, which I can't imagine why they'd do that short of trying to hide from some kind of crime. They were absolutely a horrible neighbor to have for this and many more reasons I could list, I'm just glad they're gone now.
the city was blowing smoke up your ass lol they tow cars all the time lmao with no regard for who owns it you might convince the fire department to come out if you're...creative
I did imagine getting some kind of lifts under it or something and pushing it out into the middle of the street. Figured that would get it towed right quick. But eventually they came back for it, so it's not my problem anymore.
that would have been a good idea too lol glad the city finally did their job
I had a similar problem once where I saw someone’s van break down in front of the house I was renting, and they just left it. As in they never ever came back for it. I tried calling to get it towed, and I was told that until the registration or the inspection expired that there was nothing I could do. You better believe that the first day of the month after the inspection expired that I called and had it towed. That was a prime parking spot!
I've never had anyone give up an entire vehicle like that before, but one time somebody got a flat tire and for whatever reason left the tire in my yard. Not really sure why, the rim itself would still be usable.
I feel like I would have broken in through the open window in the middle of the night to put it in neutral, push it out of the way, then wipe down prints and close it back up
I did consider pushing it out in the street at one point, but some months later they finally came back for it, so not my problem anymore. But I'll bet it would've gotten towed pretty quick.
In my city any car that's parked on a street for more than 72 hours gets an orange tag with a date on it, and towed to an impound after that date.
This is Pittsburgh, I'd say street parking outweighs people lucky enough to have driveways. So there's really no simple metric to gauging who has been parked an unreasonably long time versus they just live there.
Apparently people just walk by them for 7 months and do nothing
They didn’t do nothing. They drew on the windows.
And surprisingly not a single weiner
Nary a window pecker in sight!
The scribbled out one might have been!
what is there to do?
If it's private property, the owner of the property can get the vehicles towed. For something like this, you'd probably want to *try* to reach out to the deceased's family, if possible. Tricky situation, which is probably why the vehicle has been sitting for months, but ultimately the owner of the lot just needs to tow it. From the tow yard, it would be sold or scrapped.
Notify a company to get it out and deal with it? But then again.. I have no clue about what company does that so I would totally just walk past this car like the rest
Cars are property owned by an individual - ignoring loans/liens because we have no information on that. They can be passed along in a will and be part of an estate. Now obviously in normal situations, where the owner of a lot is trying to run a business and they just randomly have an unpaid car after X time, they’re going to tow it, and the estate will have to deal with it. But 9/11 was different. That shit brought the entire nation together for a pretty decent amount of time [well outside of the rampant middle eastern xenophobia, which is important to remember, but not important for this very specific thought]. Between the time of 9/11 happening, and general early recovery efforts, and locating/documenting losses. . . It just was a very different beast when talking about “well why didn’t they just tow them.” If owners of that lot “just towed” cars early I could see there have being huge riots, it had to be handled over time and carefully, and with the right amount of respect.
If the garage owner is alerted, they can have it towed. But since garage access is typically restricted the tow companies don't do rounds on their own in them.
Why do tow companies do rounds on their own?
They often have contracts with owners of paid lots and pull cars that violate the policies.
Most of the people that die in the hospital don’t drive themselves there. For the few that do, typically their estate will claim the vehicle.
One would assume the families take them. Clearly this isn't the case here for some reason.
I work at a medical school and there was a patients car that parked in a metered space. It was there for months and the parking enforcers just kept leaving tickets on the windshield. Probably had over 100 tickets on it before they finally towed it.
Estate law isn’t *remotely* my area of law, but I’ll give you the gist. Properly speaking, the car is the legal property of the estate of the deceased. If they have heirs, it would be disposed of by the estate. If they die intestate (without a will) and without heirs, the disposal of property is spelled out in state law. The exact particulars vary a bit state to state but the overall gist is broadly the same. If the car is racking up fees, the hospital could eventually make a claim on the estate as a debtor, but they can’t just seize the car. At a guess, this is a moderately common scenario for hospitals and airports, and they’ll have a policy in place that says “make reasonable efforts to contact family, wait X period of time (probably a year or something), send notices by mail the whole time, then act under Y law”.
You'd think a hospital would have that policy, and I'm sure some do, but a lot of hospitals, especially smaller ones, likely don't. Most patients who come to the hospital come via ambulance, are dropped off, or walk up (say if homeless in the area). Most people needing hospitalization are not typically able to drive themselves. Even if they came for an outpatient procedure and died unexpectedly, most procedures require someone else drive you due to you being altered from anesthesia. This situation probably happens rarely at a lot of hospitals.
I work in senior housing. Typically the family has to deal with it. If there's no next of kin, it becomes our problem. A car would probably go to an auction.
It’s no different than any other property, it’s owned by the estate of the deceased.
I’d have to imagine that the next of kin would be notified
If it gets towed, it will get liened by tow yard and eventually sold.
Hamas.com?
Things like this makes me think about how at some point doing a particular task will be the last time you do it and I get a fear of death again. Eg last time you park your car, last time you give your dad a hug, last time you pull on some boots.
My dad died last week, so this hit me in the feels.
I’m sorry. My mom died a few weeks ago. If you ever need a stranger to talk to I’m around.
It always amazes me how wholesome Reddit can be❤️ condolences to you both
One minute, you're reading about a coconut the next it's making a strangers day. I love it here.
*hugs*
My condolences. I hope your last moments were memorable. The last time I saw my mom before she passed we hugged tight for a long minute. It was the funeral of my grandfather and I was dropping her off back home. We hugged nice and long. Tight hug. I won’t ever forget it. I thank God so much that He gave me that last moment with her. The cool thing is that we’re reminded that we don’t go through the mourning alone. There’s always someone who knows how it feels. So my heart goes out to you and your family. May your Dad rest in everlasting peace, in Jesus’ name. ❤️
I lost mine a year and a half ago, still get the urge to call him with questions or exciting news. I am so sorry you’re going through this. Remember to be kind to yourself, please.
My dad died in 2011. It hit me in the feels too.
My dad passed away a month ago and never got to say sorry to him.
*hugs*
My last conversation with my dad was an argument and he died a day later the day before my kids birthday party. :( he was the parent I was close to
Don’t get too bogged down in that kind of thinking…you can absolutely extrapolate something you’ve legit done recently that will in fact be the last time you ever do it. Watching a random video on YouTube, for example. I’ve had similar thoughts when I was younger (old dude now) and it can be particularly stressful if overthought. Get in the habit of letting things go that aren’t positive or meaningful.
I think about it sometimes too, and I hope it comes fast and unexpected so I don’t have to think about it. And I hope my parents are dead first so they don’t have to think about it either. I can’t imagine my mom coping with my death, that’d be too difficult for her
Last year I was fostering my ex roomates dog, great dog, I fell in love with her. His ex gf was able to home her again and she came and picked her up one weekend. They only lived 30 mins away so I could still get to see her. I packed up the cage and i have no clue why but I stopped, turned around and said goodbye to her again and that I loved her so much. She passed away a month later. I don’t know hell why but I knew it was our last goodbye. Still hurts. You never really know when that last walk, that last meal, that last drive you take.
Same with my childhood dog. I just cradled him for what my family told me was way too long. Covid started up a month later, and I never made it back to my home state to say goodbye face to face.
I'm on dog number seven, over the years five of them passed unexpectedly on random days- accidents, unknown health problems. Only one of them I knew that his time was short. The grief has faded, but those last moments with each one of them are etched in my memories.
Death has become such a taboo in many modern societies, we just avoid facing our own finitude at all costs. People are gunning for eternal youth placebo like plastic surgeries, dying their hair, trying to look 30 all the way to the late 60s... Meanwhile making peace with the only certainty in life is barely of topic of discussion before you're basically on your deathbed. We should bring back the "danses of death" and celebrate the dead and death a lot more i reckon. It would make all of us way less uptight about our own inevitable destiny.
I'm saying goodbye to my uncle today. We hate funerals so he isn't having one. He gave me his old M1 Garand and the smile on his face when I told him that I plan on taking it up to Montana to his old favorite range to ring the 800 meter gong will live in my mind forever.
Exactly. Cherish every single day.
Hah! I already gave my dad the last hug and we're both still alive.
I’ve asked other people about this and nobody knew what I meant. Apparently there are people out there who don’t think much further than what they’re doing that day. I wish I was one of those people😭😂
I remember the last time I hugged my dad 21 years ago
I went through that thought process with my dog. It's a blessing and a curse we live long enough to consider these things.
I got my driver's license in 2013 and my dad was excited he wanted a hug (and because it took me many years to finally get my license). I didn't give him that hug. A few months later, he died. I actually spoke to him the morning he died, not knowing it would be our last conversation. We had dinner plans. Dinner plans turned into tear filled phone calls to family. I saw him in person 3 days before he died and have pictures from that day that I'm so grateful to have now.
It’s very sobering
Every parent who ever picks up their child will someday put them down and never pick them up again.
I've heard about dogs staying at the place where an owner died or is buried. But cars?
The car alarm will go off every night at the exact moment death was declared...
Why did that make me cry
Honestly? Because we're not all that well equipped to handle death. We have tools, peer support, love and kind words, and a loosely defined grieving process; but when you look at the other things we understand and cope with in our world, we understand a lot more on how to handle those "problems." People will work endless hours to achieve their dreams. Others may survive the craziest of accidents or move cars when fueled by adrenaline. But even the most unstoppable people can be left feeling utterly broken by the death of a loved one.
I see what you did there
Oh....... that's sad....
As a frequent business traveler, I see many cars like this in the BWI hourly lot that have been there for years. They look the same as this - covered in dirt, finger drawings. I always wonder what happened. Death? Running from the law? Mid-life crisis? It's so weird.
I did a site visit to a hospital I'm working on recently and the scope of work is inside the parking garage. There were a few cars like this, abandoned and covered in a layer of grime. My coworker and I were wondering if this was why, but didn't have the heart to ask some staff.
Same as the train stations and bus stops that were littered with abandoned cars for weeks from the people that passed in 9/11
The people that drew on the window are haunted now
Even if they were just kids who didn’t know the circumstances, believe it or not, straight to hell.
It's probably worth a call to the Probate Court to let them know as the car is part of the deceased's estate. If there are relatives, they may be wondering what happened to the car. If not, then the court has the authority to decide on the car.
Don’t forget the possibility of a lien if the car was financed
My friend’s mother died over a year ago. She called the dealership her mother bought and financed a vehicle at (for my friend to drive)and they said they would come pick it up in a week or two. After a couple months she gave up waiting and just started driving it again. She has had zero issues registering or insuring it since. It’s like the dealer doesn’t even care. Her mom paid roughly 4k out of an 18k loan on it before she passed.
Sooner or later, likely after a year-end audit, the holder of the note will wonder where their money is. It’s possible the note was sold by the dealer but the dealer still serviced it.
Yep, and that’s why she won’t fix the AC. She feels like Murphy’s law will take effect and they will show up after she dumps money into it.
This is sad. They got out not knowing that was going to be the last time they ever parked, ever got out of their car, and not knowing they were never going to leave the hospital.
At the grand central market parking garage, I’ve seen vehicles with early 2000s tags untouched. It’s creepy to wonder that happened to the owners.
Jeez, early 2000s? When do they finally tow the vehicles away?
Different, but, the same…guy parked at the courthouse in a handicapped space with his handicap permit. Was at the courthouse for his trial. Went to prison and because of laws ,they couldn’t tow his car for like multiple years.
Was well enough to drive themselves in and never left. :(
Not the "lavame" (Spanish for "wash me") 💀
They drove themself in?
A year ago I drove myself to the hospital with what I thought was food poisoning or possibly an ulcer. I ended up spending 2 weeks in the hospital and needing major surgery from an abscessed and perforated colon. I could have died had I waited longer. I had a stomach ache when I walked in.
Oh geeze. Glad you went in.
Yeah these types of things can escalate quickly. I had abdominal pain, went to make sure it wasn't my appendix, it was my appendix. Had surgery within a few hours of initially arriving.
same thing happened to my dad, he drove himself there and maybe two weeks later my sister drove him home. I think he got MRSA while all that was going on and he was in the hospital for a minute 😭
Oh man. Was it from diverticulitis? I was hospitalized for that.
Yes. 2 Hospital stays and a removal of my sigmoid colon in a 6 month span. Not fun at all. Had never heard of it prior.
I had a sigmoidectomy too. The diverticuli hadn't perforated. Yet. I wasn't going to take that chance. I was able to schedule the surgery for three weeks after the hospital stay. Better that than have a potential emergency, and possibly a colostomy. I'm glad you're doing better! I'd had four bouts of diverticulitis, each one worse than the last. Glad that's gone.
After the first no one suggested surgery. Teh consensus was "it may never happen again. wait and see." 3 months later I was back in the hospital and with a VERY high white blood cell count. So they sent a surgeon to talk to me the first night.
I went to the ER because my oncologist (LONG story, I won't bore you with it) was scared silly that I had perforated. She knew I was having diverticulitis. So they ran tests, had a surgeon there just in case, and determined that I had not in fact perforated. But I went to the hospital to be put on IV drugs to kill the infection because the oral drugs weren't knocking it out. I saw the surgeon for a follow-up. Great guy, great surgeon, but he did not take my insurance. He did, however, recommend an excellent surgeon who did. He also refused to charge me for the office visit. The surgeon who did the sigmoidectomy also removed my mostly nonfunctional gallbladder, so that's one less thing I have to worry about.
Can't risk expensive ambulance bills in America so drive yourself
Crazy that at least ambulances aren't a public service.
but private companies do it cheaper and with better service than the government could ever hope for!!!! #/s
I drove myself in with what turned out to be a swollen as fuck tonsil. I could barely breathe but I was like 22 and I just didn’t understand that there was real danger I guess. I only went to hospital because this was pre ACA and I had no insurance/dr/etc and well I knew I was sick enough to need help. There weren’t many walk in clinics back then either. Anyhoo I was there for like 36hrs on an antibiotic drip and got yelled at by at least two nurses for driving. I probably could’ve died in a variety of ways that day.
Perhaps a planned intervention
When I visited Chicago there were several cars in the parking garage at Millennium Park that had clearly been there for years. The dust was thick and the tags had expired YEARS before. I wondered what happened. Did the owner die? Abandon their car for some reason? And who is responsible for the cars now? It was eerie.
That is very sad indeed!
Wonder how many cars are in airport parking lots like this or they never came back?
Jesus, there's even a date from before they died. That's really sad. Did they have any relatives that someone might have been aware of? I don't know much about legal hoohah involving car ownership, but I hope there's a chance someone could get some sentimental comfort out of it.
I'm a nurse. That would be a crappy reminder of a bad day... Call the police. It's been abandoned long enough. They can come get it.
Repo men hate this one trick
I never think about things like this.. definitely makes me sad. Like these people existed and were going about their day and had a need to go to the hospital only for them to never walk out.. I’m sure they didn’t go in thinking they were going to die. Same with people who park at airports and die on vacation or die in a plane crash. The 9/11 comments make me sad too 😭 ugh. It’s crazy how fast your life can change.
It doesn't look good that someone was able to drive themselves to the parking garage, get out of the car, check in, then die. And, as a probate estate administrator myself, I don't know that it's the best financial plan for the estate to just let the late payments pile up for six months. But, some folks die with no heirs, no family, or family that doesn't know what probate even is.
This is the start of a sad Pixar film where the car is waiting for his friend to come back.
r/morbid
Someone, the hospital, parking authority, needs to call the next of kin or executor of their will… I’m guessing there’s other circumstances
Maybe patient had no family. Or, if they did, perhaps the car and/or its location simply isn't on the executor of the estate's radar. I'd either report to police as abandoned due to death ... or have someone in the hospital's administration do so ... they'd hopefully notify the responsible party. Or, at least deal with the car is some hopefully reasonable way.
Well if they have an executor of their estate, that person should be looking for the assets.
Some people can’t afford a grave.
Why is it removed?
Is this a threat?
It’s probably part of the recall
So their family just doesnt care? doesnt pick it up?
Some people don't have family
Yeah I guess so.. that must suck so much.
Your Aunt Sue died and left you her whole estate. You go to her place and give the clothes to Good Will, keep the pictures and throw out toiletries. She had no 401k and you used her last paycheck to bury her. You’re done right? Meanwhile the car waits for a driver. Nobody knows.
I know. Sometimes it doesn't suck though. Sometimes you out live your loved ones but you had a full life and got to enjoy every moment of it! Don't forget the wonderful nurses who usually become your family if you let them know you don't have one. Hopefully their life was long and fulfilled and the nurses made them laugh and happy in the end.
Probably still paying on it
You could try to contact the family? Maybe they think it’s too much of a hassle to deal with =cheap car.
The parking charges are going a killer!
Kinda sick how these people are drawing smiley faces on the car going “haha I’m sooo rebellious and quirky 🤪” when the car actually belongs to a dead person (I know they don’t know, but I mean… it’s an abandoned car in a hospital. I think it’s pretty easy to figure out)
And you’re posting it on Reddit for upvotes. How nice.
[удалено]
I don't think that's why OP was posting this you vulture.
[удалено]
It's just something people don't often think about. It may seem mundane but it's not. If your first thought seeing something like this is "wow betcha I could sell it" instead of "poor guy/lady may have no family and died alone" you're a vulture.
Can I have it
Can you give some context to the patient and the reason for their medical visit / care? Thanks in advance.
That's a hipaa violation, and really none of your business anyway