Dashcam footage of tense standoff over Adelaide CBD parking spot sparks online debate

A tense midnight confrontation caught on camera between two drivers has divided opinion about whether or not you can reserve parking spaces. Have your say.

• Video: Ultimate Marion car park stand-off

A late-night dashcam video showing a tense standoff over a CBD parking spot has ignited online debate, after a driver said they were threatened by two people refusing to move from a public car park.

The incident happened just after midnight on Sunday on Rosina St in Adelaide’s West End.

“Two people were standing in a parking space, claiming they had ‘secured it,’” the driver wrote in a Facebook post accompanying the video.

A late-night dashcam video showing a tense standoff over a CBD parking spot has ignited online debate, after a driver said they were threatened by two people refusing to move from a public car park. Picture: Supplied

The incident happened just after midnight on Sunday on Rosina St in Adelaide’s West End. Picture: Supplied

“I told them it’s illegal to reserve a public parking spot like that and asked them to move.

“They replied, ‘Do whatever you want, we’re not moving’.”

After telling them they’d call police, they said the pair dared them to “go ahead”.

“I tried calling Hindley Street Police Station, but no one answered,” the driver wrote.

“I started recording the situation for evidence.”

Although not all of the exchange was captured on video, the driver wrote one of the individuals said, “Turn the camera off or we’ll throw you out of the car,” before “lighting a cigarette and calling friends over”.

“At that point, I felt unsafe and decided to leave,” the driver wrote.

The video has since sparked fierce debate online in the comments section.

“It’s not actually illegal to ‘hold’ a spot,” one Facebook user wrote.

“You could say they were unreasonably obstructing traffic, but that’s as illegal as it gets.”

Other users were more blunt.

“You should [have] called 000 … they made threats against you,” one comment read.

Another said, “Some would let them just have it, then come back later and scratch the car up. Accidents happen.”

While technically not illegal, obstructing a car in a public car park may still breach SA pedestrian road rules — and carry a fine as well as a victims of crime levy.