Car dealers anger those seeking shelter
Businesses took up free parking spaces to save their vehicles
Two Florida car dealerships angered residents and college students when they used free shelter parking as their own protected car lots while Hurricane Irma closed in on the Sunshine State.
In the state capital, Tallahassee, Florida State University students and locals complained Sunday that they couldn’t park in a covered campus garage because the spots were filled with brandnew cars from Napleton Infiniti, a dealership.
The upset motorists filled the company’s Yelp page with negative reviews.
“Don’t be that guy,” wrote one reviewer, Maurina D. “Don’t park your cars in student parking during a hurricane.”
“Hey @floridastate, I pay tuition here. If my car sustains damage, do I get a new infiniti?” one student tweeted.
The university opened up the garages to the public to give people a chance to have their cars secured. The dealerships’ cars drew the attention of the campus police department and administration.
Sunday evening, the university announced on Twitter that the vehicles had been removed. An effort to contact the dealerships was unsuccessful.
In the South Florida city of Hollywood, 40 cars from a mystery dealership were ticketed and fined after they were found parked in a city municipal lot. City spokeswoman Raelin Storey said that the dealership would be issued a misdemeanor citation for using the public right of way for commercial use and that it would be cited for each car parked. The violation carries a fine of up to $500 or up to 60 days in jail.
Like Florida State, the city offered hundreds of municipal parking spots to locals who wanted to keep their cars safe. The garages started to fill Wednesday, and people started complaining about the dealership cars.
Said Storey, “It’s really unfortunate that someone would take advantage.”