Upon returning to the parking lot, a frequent Walmart customer was angry to discover that someone had messed with her car.
TikToker @mydysfunctionalfamily1 documented her experience in a viral clip that’s garnered over 1 million views. She suggests the act may have been one of discrimination. However, several viewers commented that the perpetrator likely had other motives.
@mydysfunctionalfamily1 ♬ original sound – MY Dysfunctional Family
The TikToker begins the clip by showing her pink truck with a shopping cart beside it. “OK, y’all, when I say I’m irritated and pissed the hell off,” she says.
She then pans the camera to show that several zip ties have been looped into a chain to connect the shopping cart to one of her car’s door handles.
“Y’all see that? I don’t know if this is some racial stuff or what, but why I come out to my car, and it’s a cart zip-tied to my car? Like, really?”
The Daily Dot contacted Walmart via email contact form and @mydysfunctionalfamily1 via TikTok comment for more information.
While the shopper suggests the act was racially motivated, many commenters thought whoever decided to zip-tie a cart to her vehicle had more of a problem with how she parked than her skin tone.
“When I saw this I automatically knew it’s the parking,” one viewer wrote. While another commented, “it’s the way you parked.”
Some viewers thought it was telling the TikToker didn’t show how the “pink behemoth” was parked, like one who wrote: “But she ain’t show how she parked tho.”
Several others said they saw her truck’s tires parked on the yellow line of the spot. To many, this solidified the idea that she was being punished for her parking.
“Girl you are ON that yellow line,” one viewer wrote. Another said, “can see the tires on the yellow line … are you in Lynchburg Virginia … we do this daily.”
However, others thought being on the line didn’t constitute lousy parking. One such viewer said, “You can see the reflection of the line. For the comments saying parking, it looks like she parked fine.”
The internet has no shortage of anecdotes and viral posts on how vigilantes exacted revenge on folks who committed the sin of parking poorly. There are even businesses that sell cards people can leave on cars to let the driver know just how lazy or incompetent they are for how they’re parked.
While the aforementioned tales of parking vengeance are more lighthearted in nature, there are downright frightening, brutal, and tragic incidents that have occurred over parking disputes. 58-year-old Christopher Hightower of Queens, NY, was beaten to death in April of 2023 during a brawl between him and a neighbor over street parking. The neighbor told the Daily News that the attacks he launched against Hightower, who was intoxicated at the time of his death, were in self-defense.
