By J.R. Montigel
Watch the video below. It might make your blood boil! It did mine!
First, let me say something so you know where I’m coming from. When I am not away with my RV (which is often), I live in a middle class neighborhood. Everybody keeps their homes up nicely with lawns weeded and mowed. I have never seen a neighbor repair a transmission in his driveway.
So how would I feel if somebody dropped off a junker motorhome that won’t even operate by the curb right in front my house? I’d be mad as a wet hen! In the case shown in the video below, nobody appeared to live in it. But I know in similar situations that an RV has, indeed, been occupied, sometimes by different people—one group at night, one during the day.
But, regardless, I’d call the police and expect that it would be removed immediately, or at least after a few days. But what if I got the runaround, and the RV remained there—one giant eyesore—for weeks, even months on end—in this case six months?
Whose responsibility is this?
Isn’t this the responsibility of local law enforcement? Or am I supposed to hire a towing service myself and then have it hauled to some place (wherever that may be!)? How much would that cost? Should I be required to foot the bill?
This case has a strange ending, which you will see if you watch the video. The RV finally gets hauled, but only because of a crime committed against it that is so offensive that the city finally had to act and tow the junk heap somewhere else.
As I look out my front window now I see a nice, tidy neighborhood. It’s hard to imagine seeing a beat-up old RV parked there for months on end. And yet it could very well happen to me, just as it did to the person you will meet in this video.
This makes my blood boil!
Your comment is welcome. But keep it civil or it will be deleted.
##RVT1043b
I’d get my neighbors to pitch in and tow it over and park it in front of the mayors house. Darn tootin’ it would get dealt with quickly at that point.
Don’t move to Portland Oregon because you see this all over
They could have hired a lawyer and sued the city. That should get action real quick. Have to admit though, the swastika and hate speech was a clever solution to get the city to act.
Dear RV Travel friends,
Thank you for posting the thoughtful story – much appreciated. If possible, we would appreciate it if you could spend a moment to do a search for a YouTube video on stories like this so we are not necessarily required to watch an advertisement prior to watching the video. Here’s the same story on the CBS Los Angeles channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z85Ws9vJjNs
Hi, Cal. When I clicked on the video in our article, it went straight to the news story, with no ad. And when I do see an ad at the beginning of a video, usually I can skip it after a few seconds by clicking on the button in the bottom right corner of the screen. I think when we post a video, we try to link to one without the beginning ad, but it may not always be possible. Have a great day. 🙂 –Diane
What I find really unsettling is that all the other laws that were ignored by officials get no action but a violation of PC speech does! I don’t agree with what was written but the thought that speech, even “hate” speech, is a crime that gets action when citizens have been pleading with authorities to simply enforce other laws got ignored is, or at least should be, chilling in this soon-to-be formerly free land.
Transmission repair is generally not performed in a driveway. It’s the responsibility of local government to set zoning laws to regulate such issues. Have you voiced your concerns to them? Have you thought about what constitutes an “old Rv”? What does your city/township think? What if I’m visiting my son or daughter in your neighborhood? Am I prohibited from parking in front of his/her house. ? That has happened.
More than likely the reduction in law enforcement and budget deemed this a non-critical issue and so it remained there until enough complained. Here, it would not happen. We have city code on RVs whether abandoned or not, on the street. After a few days, it’s towed.
I don’t think it’s your business to rule what someone does on his property, you could have asked to move his RV on his property.
On a different note: I dislike seeing abandoned vehicles, as I’m a car-guy. To me, that ol’ RV is a fixer upper. Not everyones cup of tea, but someone (if it was clean) would be a great guys weekend ice fishing vehicle.
With that said, I would not want to see it in front of my house. This is why we keep our 1996 class-a clean, and polished. As RVers, we know the person who left this behind is clearly not one of us.
Taxpayers have rights:
How long can you park on the street in California?
72 hours
As California Vehicle Code 22651(k) states, a vehicle is only allowed to park in the same spot on a public street for up to 72 hours. Vehicles parked beyond this time may be issued a warning, cited and/or towed, even if they have a residential parking permit for that area.
Other California laws require removal for violations.
It is unlawful and a misdemeanor for any person to abandon, park, store, or leave or permit the abandonment, parking, storing, or leaving of any licensed or unlicensed vehicle or part thereof which is in an abandoned, wrecked, dismantled, or inoperative condition upon any private property or public property not …
There is also public media : TV Stations.
This is precisely why I specifically bought our home in a nice Del Webb 55+ community. Strict HOA.
No vehicles can be parked overnight on the street. No barking dogs, basketball hoops, loud garage bands, old clunker cars and RVs in driveways, overgrown lawns, run down houses….
Can move to your neighborhood? With the exception of overgrown lawns and run down houses, we have everything else on the list + a few more: children (about 7-9 years old) driving unregistered, souped up golf carts in the street, very loud “muscle” cars at all hours of the day and night, and absolutely no existence of a “leash law” as dogs do their business all over everyone’s yard.
Both my wife and I are much past 55 (she is 70) and we have been considering relocating to a 55+ community for a long time.
This is precisely why we moved to a gated 55+ community also. They are pretty good about enforcing the rules/regulations, and keeping the entire community looking good at all times.
We love living here.
Precisely why I live out in the country. No HOA to deal with and none of the other bad stuff either. Well … It does get a little loud when my nearest neighbor has his annual family “fun with guns” shooting day on his adjoining 80 acres (all safely done). 😉
What makes my blood boil is a government that has laws but doesn’t act on them. Tags that expired in 2011 and multiple tickets on an abandoned vehicle should have triggered a tow to the impound yard, then after a time, to the junkyard, along with a ticket for at least littering to the last registered owner. Instead, it had to wait until some SJW got triggered by speech. What are the laws for? What do I pay taxes for?
The homeless and vagrants in our community have realized that our neighborhood is not a welcoming place to park. If you make people aware this won’t be tolerated- then it won’t.
Go try and “Junk” an RV.
You will find out very quickly that NONE of your local scrap dealers, junkyards or anyone else will take an old junk RV even if and when YOU PAY EM to do so.
Too much wood, plastic, fiberglass and other none metal items that are heavy yet to git rid of and have no scrap value.
So what’s the answer?
Drop that JUNK on the side of the road and walk away. Lets share the burden of hauling and scraping that junk RV away with the other tax payers in our town. At least it is no longer MY PROBLEM!
Welcome to the world we live in!
It’s only going to git worse with the high cost of housing/rent as more and more people will by an RV for full time living and need to park it somewhere!
This is a nice safe neighborhood so let’s park in front of your house on the street and stake our claim to FREE PARKING!
In this day and age of doorbell cameras nobody has one on the street that could see who left it there or spray painted it?
Somebody did what they had to do in order to get this junk hauled away. End of story.
My thoughts exactly!!! Simple cheap solution.
Go out after midnight, put a match to it and be done!
I had the same thoughts, and then, didn’t want to risk a 1st. responder.
Just drag it out into a intersection an leave it.
We had a problem with people? someone? leaving furniture, old sofas etc. on the sidewalk in front of our home. We just pulled them into the street to where cars had to swerve to get around it, and in a few days, problem solved! We absolutely were NOT going to pay for someone else’s junk to go to the dump!
That’s the best answer. May make a few neighbors upset, but the authorities would have to do something about it. At this point, visiting a city council meeting sounds like a great idea, or maybe pickets outside City Hall.
You’d be a fool to pay to have it “towed away”. Such an act might make you liable for costs / lawsuits down the road. It IS the responsibility of the local municipality. I understand that said municipality WILL try to avoid said responsibility but, rally the community to pressure the municipality to DO IT’S JOB. If the homeowner along with a dozen or more neighbors showed up at a town meeting (and they might have to repeat said appearance) the “squeaky wheel” WILL get “greased”. The louder & squeakier said wheel is, the quicker town action will occur.
Thumbs Up!
MMA?
That would be gone from our neighborhood the first day. Of course, I live in the other LA (Lower Alabama). The first time law enforcement showed up to find an unregistered vehicle parked on the right of way it would be impounded.
Maybe it does git an impound citation however the local tow guy might not come and git it anymore as the tow company will then be STUCK WITH IT with no chance of payment for the tow or the storage charges accrued. Then it becomes the tow companies problem to deal with gitting rid of it. They already have enough junk sitting on their tow in lot!
Towing companies are not stupid and wising up. Many of their impound vehicle tow contracts with local governments now EXCLUDES the towing abandoned RV’s!
You obviously live in a different part of LA than i.