When mum-of-2 Claire Ramscar pulled into Sainsbury's, she was keeping an eye out for a parent and child space. So when she saw the single man in front of her park in the last family spot – she "flipped" – left her car behind him and marched to customer services to report him.

Advertisement

"I followed this car into the car park and watched him pull into the parent and child bay ahead of me," she told the Daily Mail. "He clearly didn't have any kids so I just sat behind him. I had two young children with me and I wasn't blocking anyone else.

"I asked him what he was doing and he just told me to shut up and walked off. I flipped, I'm not proud of it, but I just left the car where it was."

Claire, 40, gave staff at the customer service desk his registration number and they took her details – but the next thing Claire heard over the tannoy was staff asking her to move her double-parked car. "I spoke to staff and asked them why they didn't enforce their own rules, but they were making the whole thing out to be my fault," she said.

Claire was determined to stand her ground and went for lunch in the store with her mum and two daughters aged 3 and 15 months – keeping an eye on her silver Citron DS5 from the café. But she eventually returned to her car after her girls got upset. "It's incredibly annoying for people with young kids who need those spaces to have someone swan in and abuse the system like that," she said. "But then the girls were getting agitated so I decided it would just be better to leave.

More like this

"Everyone was looking out the cafe window because they could see him getting frustrated and I wanted to check he wouldn't damage my car."

mum-takes-revenge-on-man-blocking-family-parking-bay_128519

Sainsbury's say their policy is to ask someone parked wrongly in a parent and toddler bay to move. They will then issue a ticket if they refuse to move, but they can't guarantee that all incidents will be spotted immediately. "We monitor our car parks closely for parking violations,"

A Sainsbury's spokesperson said. "Customers are invited to contact a colleague if they notice that someone has parked incorrectly."

When Claire posted the picture of the wrongly parked car on her Facebook page, she got a mixed response. "I can understand your frustration and have suffered 'baby bay' rage and asked politely for a driver to move," one user commented. "However, I think you were very much in the wrong to park the way you did, that I daresay was done in rage and in front of your children. What side did you get them out as one side is clearly more hazardous?! The bloke was a plonker for parking there but your reaction is worse!"

Another added: "I think Claire was trying to make the point that people park in the parent and child place when they don't have children, I know it isn't law but it would have been polite of the driver to move when he could see Claire had two small children."

Do you think Claire was in the right? Let us know in the comments below.

Read more:

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement