Wealthy Jerks Who Park Illegally Finally Face The Tiniest Taste Of That Thing Called 'Consequences'

A lot of people want money to buy things or go places they couldn't possibly afford on a normal income, but after a certain point, nicer things aren't the real benefit of being wealthy — it's being able to use that money to do anything you feel like, at any time. Throw enough money at your problems, and you can go anywhere, do anything, and ignore any law. Or at least that's the promise. As the BBC reports, sometimes society gets tired of that behavior and decides maybe having too much money shouldn't mean you get to park wherever you want.

Apparently, a hotel called the Chancery Rosewood, which lists the cost of a room at just under $5,000 if you want to book a stay next Saturday, has been a particular problem for Londoners. Wealthy guests keep parking their ridiculously expensive cars illegally and then ignoring the parking tickets. Wealthy guests from foreign countries are reportedly especially problematic, since there may as well be no way to make them pay. But you can still tow their cars, and that's exactly what the Westminster City Council has started doing.

Upon hearing that their illegally parked cars would be towed instead of merely ticketed, several owners moved them voluntarily. But not all of them. One Saudi national left their Rolls-Royce Wraith parked where it was, and now it's gone. Oops. So sad. Other exotic and ultra-luxury vehicles have also reportedly been taken away, which will probably be a heck of a surprise whenever the owners remember they have a car parked at the Chancery Rosewood. 

As an unnamed council spokesperson told the BBC, those owners forced the WCC to take more drastic action because "the usual approach of issuing [penalty charge notices] have proven to be ineffective, and the owners of the vehicles, which include Rolls Royce and Lamborghinis, are so wealthy that fines barely register." Personally, I'd say that might be a sign the UK should restructure the way it administers fines, but towing works, too. 

After all, it takes time to get a car back, and if there's one thing the wealthy hate, it's being forced to spend their time doing something they don't want to do. They'll probably just pay someone to go get their car for them (if they even both with that), sure, but at least they'll be more inconvenienced than they'd be if their cars just kept getting tickets. Ideally, the council would only release towed vehicles with a certain number of PCNs to the registered owners themselves, just to make it even more annoying for them, but something tells me that isn't the case, even if it probably should be. 

Still, it's nice to see council member Max Sullivan tell the BBC, "Those on foot shouldn't have to run a gauntlet of illegally and selfishly parked supercars when trying to walk around Westminster. We will not tolerate dangerous pavement parking, whether it's a Lime bike or a Lamborghini." Just imagine how much better city life in the U.S. would be if our council members had that same attitude, especially in places like New York City, where illegal parking is a massive problem and largely unenforced.