Cabramatta road rage: Van and ute battle for the same parking spot in south-west Sydney

A tense stand-off threatened to explode when a man stubbornly stood guard over an empty car park space and single-handedly stopped a van wanting to snap it up.

Footage shows the moment the van tries to pull into a loading zone on Hill Street, Cabramatta in Sydney’s south-west as the man on foot determinedly blocks it.

The van can be heard honking relentlessly but the man refuses to give in and patiently waits for a woman in a ute to turn up and carefully reverse into the spot.

The stunned van driver is then given a barrage of abuse and middle fingers by the couple on Saturday before he eventually drives off to find another park instead.

Video of the flashpoint has divided the internet – with opinions split over who was in the wrong. 

A Cabramatta Community social media page was told by a witness the man had been standing in the park for quite some time before the start of the video. 

Bemused onlookers watched as swearing and honking emanated from the standoff. 

Then when an Isuzu ute arrived and immediately mounted the kerb in front of the space, the elderly man’s motive was clear. 

The man hurriedly waved his apprehensive partner into the space, all the while guarding the park from the van honking behind him. 

But the van’s honking was ultimately in vain. 

The spot was taken from under its nose thanks to an unorthodox reverse parking manoeuvre which saw the ute overshoot onto the footpath in order to undercut the van.

Once the ute was safely in the parking space, the man turned his attention to the ute, yelling and gesticulating wildly. 

When the man who was reserving the park jumped in his car, his wife, who had parked it, wasted no time before antagonising the van driver (pictured)

The woman sent off the van with a middle finger, after the driver gave up waiting for the park her partner had been standing in

He then jumped into the driver’s seat as his partner got out of the vehicle. She wasted no time in picking up where he left off.

She began flipping off the van driver who had been waiting for the loading dock as the elderly man adjusted her hurried park.

A final ‘f*ck you’ and middle finger from the elderly man sent the van driver on his way as he finally gave up and went looking for another park. 

 

Some applauded the driver of the van for his patience while blasting the man standing in the car space

Passersby eventually dispersed after watching the incident, but on a community group on Facebook locals were incensed.

‘This would test anyones patience. So selfish to think they have a right to a car spot by standing on it! Lucky he wasn’t nudged a little,’ wrote a Cabramatta woman.

Some had more militant responses as tensions run high in Sydney parking feuds.

‘Two options dealing with people like that, either block the ute so no one can park or go somewhere else and come back to key the car,’ one man said.

‘I would have come back and slashed all his tyres. He can park there permanently until he pays for someone to tow his ute to a tyre shop,’ said another brutal local.

‘I thought the end result of this in Cabramatta would be a keyed car? How hard is it people? No car, no park. It’s a car parking space and not a person parking space,’ said another.

 

Some, however, believed the man was within his rights to reserve the parking space by standing in it

Other locals had sympathy for both occupants of the ute, lamenting the parking in the suburb.

‘Probably been trying to unload the Ute for two hours with no luck,’ said one man.  

‘People are so toxic, he’s not holding the spot for your average sedan he’s probably keeping the spot for the ute to load something onto it,’ commented a commiserative viewer.

‘He seen (sic) it first so it’s his spot, first in first serve (sic). It’s just the untold rule and sometimes your duty as a passenger,’ said another woman.

Another south Sydney man said incidents like the one in the video were why he didn’t drive through the suburb anymore.