Parking in this store’s lot even though you’re not a customer? They’ll just keep your car then.

Japanese society, in general, doesn’t like conflict. When problems occur, people are expected to try to work out their differences in an amiable, often delicately indirect way. Even if you’ve been legitimately wronged, immediately making a scene and vehemently demanding retribution will have people thinking that you’re lacking in maturity, and that even if you didn’t start the problem, you’re part of the reason it persists.

Nevertheless, the owner of one branch of the Mini Stop convenience store chain has had it with non-customers parking in his store’s parking lot. Not only does this prevent Mini Stop customers from using the occupied space, he can’t even confront the perpetrators directly, since after parking their car they wander off to whatever their non-Mini Stop destination is. So to deal with the problem, he recently decided to leave a note on an unauthorized parker’s car.

Actually, several notes…plus a few other things.

As seen in photos shared by Japanese Titter user @hiroki50621, the shop owner plastered the car with notices, including a traffic cone on hood stating “No parking allowed for non-Mini Stop customers.” While this might seem like an extreme reaction, the presence of detailed printed reprimands suggests that this is a frequent problem for the store.

The papers taped to the window say “There are a limited number of parking spaces in our lot, so please refrain from: napping in your car or using it as a meeting place, leaving your car here and going somewhere else, or remaining parked for more than 30 minute after finishing your shopping.” Peeling all those off is going to be a pain for the car’s owner, but the bigger headache is the boot that the store owner has attached to the car’s right rear wheel, locking the car in place. “A boot has been placed on your car!” the handwritten notice announces. “If you want it removed, please pay 40,000 yen (US$360).”

Oddly, the machine-printed notice only asks for 30,000 yen to remove the boot. Maybe the store’s policy has changed, or maybe the store owner has upped the penalty to make a point. Either way, the car owner might want to pay up quickly, before the store owner raises the ransom any higher.

Source: Jin

Featured image: Twitter/@ hiroki50621