Parking near Wollaston MBTA stop creates an unexpected headache for resident

QUINCY, Mass. – Parking in Quincy is always tough at peak hours, especially near crowded MBTA stations, but one resident said another person’s actions caused her quite the headache.

Nicky Peterkin lives just a few blocks away from the Wollaston T stop where parking is tight and spaces are saved year round. She thought she’d seen it all until she returned from a trip to the store.

“I came back and there was this car in the driveway,” she said. “Who the heck parks in someone else’s driveway?”

An SUV was parked in her spot, blocking a leased vehicle Peterkin said she had planned to return before work that day.

“I left my car on, brought the groceries into the house came back out; still nothing. Went back in again, came out, rang all the doorbells next door, this person was nowhere to be found,” she said.

When Peterkin called the Quincy Police Department, a friendly officer told her she would need to call for a tow truck on her own.

“I think I called six total. Five in Quincy and one in Dorchester,” she said.

None of those companies would remove the SUV from Peterkin’s driveway.

“Unfortunately, if you’re on the other end looking to get a car towed off your property it does get aggravating,” Jacqueline Wuestefeld the owner of Blue Hills towing said.

Wuestefeld said tow operators are often reluctant to take vehicles from homes unless there are no parking signs posted or police request it.

“You can tow a vehicle and they can turn around and say there was damage done to the vehicle,” she said. “It’s all liability and we pay enough insurance as it is.”

The second time Peterkin called police the officer ordered a tow truck for her. One possibility moving forward is to post a no parking sign.

“I don’t want to,” she said. “I mean, no parking in my driveway is kind of obvious. Right?”

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