‘He was not only stealing my space but making fun of me.’ Bicyclist Figures Out How To Play Hardball With Parking Space Thief

When you decide to live in a country and culture that isn’t your own, you expect there to be a learning curve.

You don’t expect to have to deal with jerks, but most people realize soon enough that mean people live everywhere.

OP was a foreigner living in Japan but he took quickly to the part of the culture that included bicycling instead of driving a car.

Part of this was paying for a parking space as they were limited and basically never free.

So Im living in Japan now and here people ride bicycles a lot. You cant leave your bike anywhere and you have to pay for parking, between 1 and 2 dollars per day.

There are very few free parking areas for bicycles. Most people leave their bikes at the same place so they pay monthly because its cheaper and you have your own space.

So, when someone else started parking their bike in his spot, OP was upset. After it happened a couple of times he left a note.

This started a couple of weeks ago. Someone in my building started having a guest who decided to steal my bicycle parking space whenever they came to vistit.

Sometimes they stayed the whole night so I had to go to the station, pay one dollar and come all they way home walking, which meant I would need to walk to the station the next day (getting up earlier, walk like 20 minutes to the station while carrying my heavy bag).

All the bicycle spaces have a number, which means they are reserved for someone. Mine is the 105 but this person decided to take mine whenever they came to visit.

The second time this happened, I told the building manager but they didn’t do anything. The third time I saw the bicycle there (it was the same red expensive bicycle)

I left a note in Japanese saying “please don’t leave your bicycle here, this is my space and I am using everyday.

The response definitely got his dander up.

I found the note taped (with the tape I used to tape it on their bike) to my parking space and it had a couple of bad words in Japanese at the end. Basically he was not only stealing my space but making fun of me by insulting me. Fine, its just fine…

I probably wouldn’t have done anything about it if he hadn’t written those words, this triggered me and got the worst in me. This person did it again a couple of times, so I knew this would continue.

He bought a strong bike lock and locked up the offenders bicycle. That got a response – first a threat, then an apology.

I was thinking about buying another bicycle, a better more expensive one I could use to go on cycling trips so a good chain/ luck was needed anyway. I bought one of the thickest they had at the store and decided to try its efficiency.

I locked his bicycle next time I saw it there. It hasn’t moved for the last 7 days.

There where two notes, the first one was a very aggressive one, with more bad words and threats about going to the police (which I don’t care, lets go that way buddy), second note days later was an apology and they begged for me to unlock the bike because they tried to brake it but they couldn’t.

OP is still trying to decide what to do next, but figures perhaps the person has learned their lesson.

I guess he has learned his lesson. Im pretty sure he wont do it again but I just want to enjoy this feeling of victory a couple of days more. I will free it in 2-3 days I guess.

Does Reddit agree? Do they have any advice? Let’s hear them out!

The top comment says the guy owes OP some money, too.

This person worries they might be starting something the other person will finish.

Because they say people like this don’t learn lessons.

Maybe this isn’t as cut and dried as it seems.

I don’t know the laws and such, but I like the revenge.

Simple and streamlined.