Area woman Amy Holmes’ plan to find a parking spot was thwarted last Tuesday when what she thought was an available spot at her local Trader Joe’s turned out to be a spot that was actually being occupied by a very small car.
“It was a real curveball,” said Holmes. “I was so excited to get a spot so close to the entrance. That’s the spot, you know? It’s always nice to be close enough that you can take your bags out of the cart and walk them to the car. That way you don’t have to walk the cart all the way back to the cart corral. So it really sucked when I pulled up and saw a blue Mini Cooper tucked away in the spot.”
Upon realizing the spot was in fact occupied, Holmes reportedly circled the Lamp Post Plaza parking lot two more times before finding a spot much further away.
“You could see how quickly her hopes rose and then fell,” said bystander Aaron Payne. “She kind of sped up when approaching the spot because she was so excited. She even turned her blinker on. Her face looked so dejected through the window when she realized the spot was taken.”
Witnesses stated that Holmes slowed once again while passing an unoccupied handicap spot before looking around and continuing past it.
“Yeah, I could have taken the wheelchair spot,” said Holmes. “I was just running into the store to pick up a few things. I would have been out of handicap space before anyone even noticed I was able-bodied. But at the end of the day, I had to do the right thing by parking further away. Plus, there was a dejected cart tucked into the corner and I didn’t think my Subaru would fit anyway.”
As Holmes exited the store, she was reportedly “visibly irate” to find that the blue Mini Cooper had already left and two additional spots near the front of the store were vacant as well.
