stuck in a parking lot last night (condominium, garage door)

[chessimprov]

I was picking up a group of people through Lyft in the Old City section of the city. The app showed that the group was waiting inside the parking lot. I went into the parking lot and put my flashers on. I stayed in my car. There were two women and a child. They left the vicinity soon afterward and closed the garage door and I was locked inside for an hour.

The group of people I was trying to pick up showed up and tried to help me get out within the first 5 minutes, but then they had to leave in another Lyft.


During this hour after, I flagged down a few passerbys to try to help me out. I tried yelling sporadically and no one came out of the building. I then had to call the police and the policewoman was unable to help me find a person. Finally, when the policewoman was about to leave I flagged down another resident walking and she had a buzzer let me and my vehicle out.


I probably would've called local news to help me out if the policewoman had to leave me there to wait it off by myself.

[Redddog]

What the...?

Where was this?

[thedirtypirate]

Lol! No offense, but this seems to be completely your fault. You went into a private lot then got stuck inside of it..

[PHL10]

Originally Posted by chessimprov

They left the vicinity soon afterward and closed the garage door and I was locked inside for an hour.

They closed the garage door? What type of lot was this? Was it just your car that was trapped or your physical person as well? Kind of scary if it was the latter.

[jazzy jeff]

I got stuck in the garage at Abington Hospital a little over a year ago. My daughter was in labor, I was in a pay as you leave garage that closes at 10PM. Nurses told me not to worry the gate stays up after 10. Well they were wrong. At 2AM the gate was down. There was an intercom to contact security, although sat there for a good 30 mins until they came. Of course I never had to pay. LOL

[Tweb66]

If its a private lot, that woman didn't realize that was some unknown car with the blinkers on? And yeah, the people that you were picking up probably should have done more. But frankly, as for being ignored by the passerbys, I would have done the same thing. 9/10 if someone is trying to flag you down, they give you some sad story and then ask for money. I ignore them.

[chessimprov]

Originally Posted by Redddog

What the...?

Where was this?

3XX N. American St.

[chessimprov]

Originally Posted by thedirtypirate

Lol! No offense, but this seems to be completely your fault. You went into a private lot then got stuck inside of it..

Very true. Although, when I was yelling for help with explanations, started asking other people for help, and especially when a policewoman showed up and apparently one of the women was probably looking out the window, it was beyond cruel. Like, I get it. But it's sad that people can be paranoid to that degree. It's not healthy. It reminded me of being in worlds where I don't really even get a chance to build authentic belongingness because of how I look, talk, and/or my mannerisms.

[chessimprov]

Originally Posted by PHL10

They closed the garage door? What type of lot was this? Was it just your car that was trapped or your physical person as well? Kind of scary if it was the latter.

It was a private lot. It was one level- no roof, but a metal fence. So, I could see over it and people could see me and the cars. There was a door separating the parking lot from the entrance to the adjoining condominium and entrance alleyway, but that was locked. So, in essence, I was also trapped within as a physical person as well.

I was slightly laughing inside and slightly frustrated and slightly moved to try to get out- all at the same time.

[chessimprov]

Originally Posted by Tweb66

If its a private lot, that woman didn't realize that was some unknown car with the blinkers on? And yeah, the people that you were picking up probably should have done more. But frankly, as for being ignored by the passerbys, I would have done the same thing. 9/10 if someone is trying to flag you down, they give you some sad story and then ask for money. I ignore them.

There is no way the people I was picking up would've known that there was a private lot that just happened to be open to pull in to, and I was focused on the app telling me that the people I was picking up were located in the private lot.

While I get the whole ignoring thing, I wasn't totally ignored as being beside my car, and speaking loudly, but briefly, made my intentions clear. If people felt they could try to help me, they would, but if they were on their merry way, then they would acknowledge curtly that they couldn't help and I would look around and think about what else I could do. There was something about the vibe I gave up where people knew I wasn't asking for money standing by my car and probably my dress of clothes and maybe my mannerisms certainly didn't indicate that, and it would be an awkward situation to be doing such a thing, but anything is possible including me ending up in a private lot in that situation by accident, lol.

Only other thing I could've done was call local news to try to get publicity to get me out of that awkward spot sooner. That might've been my next step if the policewoman left and I was still stranded, which was about to happen, except that another passerby I happened to question did have a buzzer and was okay letting me out and understood the situation.

There was no contact information for the lot in terms of who I could call to get out- I certainly did look around for this and so did the policewoman when she arrived. The policewoman had the opportunity to knock on individually in the complex to ask if someone had a buzzer to open the vehicle gate, but I can certainly understand why she chose not to sadly.