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Louise Thomas
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A woman has gone viral on TikTok after she got trapped in a parking garage, which only accepted cards as a payment option, leading many people to share similar instances.
TikTok user Marina Jones (@elvislover1973) posted a video in July, which has since been viewed more than 2 million times, where she documented her attempts to exit a parking lot.
The video starts with Jones in her car where she admits: “I’m stuck in this parking garage because I don’t have a card.” Jones explained in the comments of the video that she had lost her card.
She then says that she’ll have to ask the person in the car behind her if she can use their card and give them $5 in return.
However, the camera then cuts to her surprise as the car behind her in the queue had now left. “Oh my God they left,” she said with a stunned expression on her face.
Without any other immediate solutions, Jones was forced to speak into an intercom system on the parking lot’s barricade and explain her situation.
Speaking to one of the employees at the parking lot, she explains that she only has cash and asks: “How do I get out?”
After a brief back-and-forth, Jones gives her licence plate to the employee and she is eventually allowed to leave through the barricade.
Jones has since received a lot of sympathy following the incident, with many people sharing similar situations that they had gotten themselves into.
One person commented: “Omg reminds me of that one time I went to the hospital with my son and took longer then it should of and I didn’t have money so I decided to follow the car in front of me. Well, it didn’t go to plan because I knocked the bar with my car. So embarrassing.”
Another TikTok user added: ”I did that at college and had to get a $40 ticket.”
A third person wrote: “It happened to me at the airport. Minus there was a lady at a booth. She said it happens all the time and that they hired a person to deal with the problem. Lol. I circled the lot for a while till I found the one exit that had the person working on it. She was so nice about it. I cried when I was able to leave because I had been in there quite a while.”
Another person chimed in and said: “You should get an Apple Card! Most places have Apple Pay now. I was very hesitant to get a credit card but it’s so user friendly and I get cash back on my purchases which goes directly into my Apple savings account.”
Parking lot discourse was at a height in February this year when American Taylor Swift fans visited Australia to see the singer’s Eras Tour in Melbourne but were left confused by the concert’s venue.
The Grammy winner performed three back-to-back concerts at Melbourne Cricket Ground from 16 February to 18 February. The stadium made history for hosting the biggest Eras Tour concert yet, with 96,000 fans celebrating in one night alone.
In a video shared by the official TikTok account for Visit Melbourne, fans were given a bird’s eye glimpse of the Melbourne Cricket Ground. While the video offered a stunning aerial view of the East Melbourne stadium, which can hold more than 100,000 people, the comments section appeared to be stumped by the lack of parking lots surrounding the venue.
