Catch me if you can!

A few nights ago, I took part in the most ridiculous cat and mouse game I´ve ever experienced. Due to largely unspoken rules and regulations, I am still not quite sure what on earth was going on. However, I do know that the whole situation didn´t make much sense. If you have any insights after reading this, feel free to leave a comment.

My usual Friday night routine leads me south of town to a street just outside a neighborhood that makes for a half-way decent sleeping spot. In the morning, I typically head to one of the “No Overnight Parking”- Walmarts in order to get ready for work undisturbed. After a few months, it struck me that although signs are posted every few feet and a security vehicle patrols the lot, there are usually a good number of urban campers, RVs, and Semis. In the past, I´ve seen people being asked to leave by the security personal. Was there a loophole I had not discovered yet?

I decided to try my luck and headed straight for the Walmart. It was late and I could make out 6 overnighters. I found myself a decent spot, put up my curtains and made my bed, and began observing the parking lot. Sure enough, there comes a security vehicle. “Crap!” He slows down, glances at my car, and moves on. “What?” Now, not everybody makes an effort to hide their homelessness. In order words, a truck with blankets strapped over it´s windshield around midnight at a Walmart is obviously not there for a snack. However, the security vehicle simply kept driving through the lot, in a very predictable fashion, row by row passing the illegally parked vehicles, with lights flashing, and not doing anything.

The moral of the story: If you can disappear inside the bowels of your vehicle fast enough, you and your car become invisible (or maybe protected by an invisible shield the guards cannot cross?).

I assume that the guards a) do not have legal permission to disturb individuals inside their vehicle, or b) have been instructed to not disturb said individuals for safety reasons (and notify the police if necessary), or c) are there as a deterrent, keeping the drug dealers and criminals out and simply tolerating the inevitable group of car campers, or last but not least d) consist of a group of OCD stricken individuals who can´t help but drive a little white car through the Walmart parking lot in the same pace using the same route every single time until they run out of fuel.