Polish city concretes around parked car after owner fails to remove it

After a driver failed to remove their car from a road that was about to be relaid in the Polish city of Łódź, construction workers simply decided to pour concrete around it.

Images of the incident have gone viral, prompting online memes and also resulting in the stranded car becoming a minor tourist attraction.

The story of the stranded car has been tracked by LDZ Zmotoryzowani Łodzianie, a Facebook community dedicated to “improving infrastructure in Łódź and showing absurdities on the streets”.

Its administrator, Jarosław Kostrzewa, told news website Interia that, after contractors working on renovating Legionów Street were unable to identify the owner of the car, they called in the municipal police (straż miejska). However, the police simply left a parking ticket and summons under the car’s windscreen wiper.

Left with little other choice, on Friday the construction workers simply fenced off the car, covered it with tarpaulin, and poured concrete around it.

When contacted by newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, the municipal police refused to comment and directed any questions to city hall.

Speaking to broadcaster Polsat on Saturday, a spokesman for the city, Paweł Śpiechowicz, admitted that “the situation is certainly attracting attention” but he assured that “it does not in any way affect the quality of the renovation”. He added that the work “must be completed by the end of this year”.

“As of now, we have no contact with the owner of the vehicle,” noted Śpiechowicz. “We appeal to him to turn himself in. We do not know the reasons why he parked the car this way, despite the renovation.”

After images of the car went viral online, people began visiting the scene, with locals joking that the city has a new tourist attraction.

“It looked nice on TV, so I said to my husband, ‘come on, let’s go to Łódź’,” one visitor Urszula, told Gazeta Wyborcza. The newspaper also spoke with a group of 12 young men who had come specially to photograph themselves alongside the stranded vehicle.

The incident also sparked a number of memes, including one suggesting that the scene could be used as the basis for a Łódź edition of Lego’s “City” range of construction sets.

Śpiechowicz told Polsat that the authorities planned to tow away the car on Monday. But on Sunday morning, LDZ Zmotoryzowani Łodzianie published images showing that it had disappeared in the middle of the night.

“Residents heard a noise at 2 a.m. and it turned out that the car had driven away. I think it might have been the owner,” Kostrzewa told Gazeta Wyborcza.

“I’m surprised that the municipal police didn’t set up a blockade to prevent this car from driving away,” he added.

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Main image credit: Marcin Stepien / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.