This blog is called "the junk car man" because there is this man who lives around the corner from me who buys lot's of junk cars.

When I moved in my home with my family about 5 years ago the previous owner sent a thank you card in the mail. In the card she noted how nice the neighborhood was the whole time she had lived here. But the most significant and part of the card was about the man who buys junk cars. She stated that he had several junk cars and he parks them all around the neighborhood but his favorite place is on my street. She stated that he likes my street because there are only a few houses on the block and there is lots of room to park, so if I am tired of these old clunkers in front of my house sitting for weeks at a time to call the police like she had to repeatedly do to have them towed. He lives around the corner and half way down the block. This was something that didn't sit too well with me because we are accustomed to being a 3 car family and our car has no garage.

A week after we moved in my wife and I were coming in the house when we heard a voice from behind. We turned around and there was a scruffy old man standing at the curb. He stated that his name was Carl and he pointed out 4 cars parked on my street and said that they were his. He then stated he parks his cars on this street all of the time and he never had any issues with anyone in the neighborhood. I found this to be kind of strange seeing as though he volunteered this information and the fact that the previous owner stated she called the police numerous times to have him move them. So I guess he felt like since there was someone new in the neighborhood that he would enforce his bad habit on us before we could even notice the vehicles sitting enough times to even start to want them moved.

So a few weeks passed and over about two months of us being in our new home we notice 3 more old cars parked on our street bumper to bumper a few feet from the corner. I would never see anyone drive these vehicles onto onto the street but they would seem to come from nowhere. Most of the time they would have improper registration and im positive there was no insurance. At any given time I could count about 8-10 cars that he owned and at least half were parked on my street. Now you would expect these cars to be half way decent vehicles but they were not. A beat of Taurus, a rusty white 80' something Ford pickup, a white minivan, an 80's something Mazda pickup, a seldom starting Marquis, and there were others. All of which were never in the best condition. On several ocassions I would come out of the house and see him pulling one with a chain or attempting to jumpstart one just to move it across the street to avoid getting tickets from having them parked in a no parking zone when the street sweepers come thru.

After months of keeping the peace and having these ugly contraptions take away the beauty of the block I lived on, I was fed up. I saw him a few day later and asked him why he has to park all of his cars on a street he does not even live on. He stated that there was no enough room on his street for all of his cars so he has to park them on my street. I then proceeded to tell him that no one has control of your need to buy more cars than you could drive in a week but they are isores to the community. I asked them if he could start parking them all in front of his house bumper to bumper if he was so proud of the vehicles. He stated that he likes to have lots of cars and that he doesn't want them in front of his house because his neighbors complain that they have nowhere to park. "Well what about me? I have nowhere to park and not to mention the affects these wrecks have on my property value." He walked away in anger without offering a solution so I yelled to him to move them around the corner or I will have them towed for sitting like that.

I let more than a week pass coming home from work everyday with these monsterous machines remaining in the same spots they were the last time we talked. Then a few family member stopped by to visit and there was no where for them to park and not have to walk half a block to get to my house. I was fed up and the next morning I called to police dept. to have a traffic patrol officer come thru the neighborhood to help mediate the situation. At this point I just wanted all of them gone the junk yard. When I got home from work I noticed that the street was empty of vehicles accept for my next door neighbor's and ours. I felt like a miracle had taken place. I was so at peace and the rest of my evening went great. That is until Carl rang my doorbell. I opened the door and he proceeded to tell me how he didn't appreciate me involving the police in a matter that we could have handle ourselves and I told him that it's obvious to me from the previous owner this is a constant problem. After a few minutes of back and forth on his rights to park his cars in front of my house he left.

A few days later I noticed on of the beat up old truck parked again across the street from my house. I was so in disbelief that I for days didn't bother calling the cops again. Then a few days later I turn down the street and there was this caravan of 3 horrible vehicles parked bumper to bumper in front of my house. So for weeks we played this game of I call the cops, he moved the vehicles a few days, then he move them back outside my house. It got to a point where I was so drained by this that I just gave up. I decided not to waste my time and energy on this issue any longer and everyday I came out the house I would just pretend the vehicles were not there. And there were always different beat up vehicles appearing in place of ones that wouldn't run any longer. He would scrap one contraption for another. It felt like torture and even as I am writing this I am glancing out of the window and he has two beat up old clunkers directly accross the street from my house that have not been moved one inch in weeks.

SOMEONE SAVE ME.