When I arrived at the stadium car park across the river, near the footbridge over the canal, I was told in no incertain terms that I was not allowed to park in the spot that I have been parking in since we moved to the JJB. There was a line of cars along the river and I along with quite a few other people decided to park opposit them also paralell to the river.
The lady getting out of the car next to me also said that the stewards had told her that she couldn't park there either. When the steward said I couldn't park there, I asked "why not". His only reason was that I might get blocked in. This was highly unlikely as I stated before I have been parking there for years. I was polite to him and said that I wasn't blocking anyone else in and that I always park there. Thereupon I got out of my car, locked it and started walking to the Stadium.
I looked over my shoulder to see him telling someone else that they couldn't park somewhere. There was a large lump of a kerb stone in the road and I suggested to him that it would be safer if he moved it to the side of the road so people could drive past instead of him telling them where to park.
The next thing I knew was someone shouting and being aggressive towards me, when I looked round it was another steward who was swearing at me and telling me "where to go." I asked him what his problem was and I received another tirade of abuse, when I responded to this he said , I quote "come and say that to my face if you think you are hard enough, and see what it gets you." Luckily I was with my Fiance and she managed to keep me walking in the direction of the Stadium and ignore this so called Steward. What if I was a knife wielding maniac who could have so easily attacked him, which could have ended with one of us behind bars and the other seriously injured or worse.
Nothing else was though of the incident until after the game when I got back to my car to find that somebody had deliberately let the tyres down on my car. Although I cannot prove who it was I have a damn good idea. There was a baby seat in the back of the car because we had just dropped our baby daughter off with my parents for babysitting. I shudder to think what would have happened if I had received a phone call asking me to go home in an emergency and not being able to because some jobsworth had let a tyre down. As it happens we still had to wait for my mates dad to turn up with a foot pump before we could re-inflate the tyre.
I know nothing will be done about this but I have written to the JJB to inform them of the incident and I have also requested the name of the company responsible for the so called "stewarding" of the car parks so that I can in turn inform them of the aggressive behaviour of its staff. I suspect I am not the only person to have had a run in with these buffoons. It could have been a lot worse than it actually turned out.
