This will go down as the December I lost it in the Old Navy parking lot

Let me just preface this story with two bits of background info I feel are relevant to the story:

1. One of my pet peeves involves people who do not place their shopping carts back into the stalls in the parking lots at stores.

2. I live in Corpus Christi. It is a very windy city.



On Sunday I took the kids to Old Navy after church to find a pair of pj's for my daughter since today was "Pajama Day" and she has outgrown all of her pj's. Shopping at the store was fine. The lines were not too terribly long. We were in and out in very little time. We left the store and walked to our car. Since our van was side swiped at the movie theater parking lot over Thanksgiving break I have been parking as far away from the stores and cars as possible. (As a side note: the side swiping story has a very happy ending involving a kind older gentleman who took responsibility for hitting our car and whose insurance is paying to repair our van. It's a long story and maybe I'll post about it another time.)



When I got in our car the closest vehicle to mine was a blue SUV 4 or 5 spaces to my right. There were two younger women who were with the vehicle. The driver got in the car and then the other girl emptied their cart into the back of the SUV and then LEFT HER CART in the empty parking space on the drivers side. I proceeded to begin to back up and as I was their empty cart started rolling directly toward my passenger side of the van, in what felt like slow motion. The empty cart hit my car and I stopped mid backing up. Let me say that at that moment I just jumped out of the car and two things were going through my mind:

1. These ladies are going to get out and apologize for the cart and will put the cart away.

2. The cart has to be moved so I can drive away.



I jumped out of the car, got the cart and headed to the SUV. As I got to the SUV (which was beginning to back up since they SAW THE ENTIRE INCIDENT) I said "Your cart, you need to get your cart, it hit my car." They looked at each other and I have no idea exactly what they said to each other, but the jist of it was...Let's get the heck out of here! They continue to back up and by this time I am standing inches away from the passenger window and I am becoming more and more angry as I realize that they have no intentions of taking responsibility for their actions and are in fact going to leave. So I continue on, this time I am poking at the window while saying, "YOUR CART! YOUR CART HIT MY CAR!!" as I then point from them to my car. The girl in the passenger seat will not even look at me. She just stares straight ahead. I say it again louder, "YOUR CART!! YOUR CART HIT MY CAR!!" The driver then looks at me, gives me a half smirk/half grin and then drives away. I stood there in utter disbelief at such blatant disregard for another human being. I wanted to jump in front of their SUV and put my hands on their hood to stop it or jump on their bumper to try and stop them. I just could not believe it.



Here's my thinking: If you are able to push a cart around a store then surely you are able to take one extra minute and put it away in a cart stall. Down here in Corpus it is so windy that any cart left alone is bound to blow away and more than likely it will blow into someone else's car.



I guess that thing that upset me most was the blatant disregard for someone else's property and the complete lack of accepting responsibility for ones actions.



Now I am left in a quandry: Where exactly is the safest place to park in a parking lot? Any suggestions? Any personal experiences of your own?



After I told my husband about the incident he told me, "Julie, that's how people get killed in parking lots." I guess I never gave it much thought what danger I could have placed myself and my kids in when I got out of the van. I was completely expecting the people to do the right thing, like I would. I have learned my lesson. Next time I will just grab my camera, take pictures of the vehicle as they are leaving and write down their license plate. Hopefully though, there won't be a next time.

I think I am also going to avoid stores on the weekends during the month of December! Hope all is well with you! I will post more "happier" stories later.
Take care,
Julie