Takeaway boss publicly shames driver blocking his burger van from leaving a car park… but it backfires when people point out he parked across TWO disabled bays
- Mario Shepherd, who runs The Flavour Trailer, asked a motorist to move their car
A takeaway boss publicly shamed a driver who blocked his burger van in a car park but his rant quickly backfired when people pointed out his own stall was parked across two disabled bays.
Mario Shepherd, who runs The Flavour Trailer, took to Facebook late on July 22 to demand a motorist move their car as it was ‘holding up his whole operation’.
The ‘urgent’ post to a community page in Grange Park, Northamptonshire, was accompanied by a snap showing a white Volkswagen a few feet from his fast food trailer.
Mario, 34, said the hatchback was blocking their from being able to connect to the trailer.
However locals quickly hit back at the burger boss by pointing out the trailer’s end was jutted across a disabled bay while the rest of the stall appears to be covering the ‘only other one’.
They branded Mario’s siren-emoji-filled post ‘dramatic’ and slammed him for ‘moaning’ when he was using an area designated for disabled community centre visitors.
Mario Shepherd, who runs The Flavour Trailer, pictured with one of his burgers
People have branded Mario’s post ‘dramatic’ as he told the VW owner to move ASAP
The Flavour Trailer can be seen encroaching on a disabled bay in this image
The post has gone viral with Facebook users wading in to tell Mario it ‘serves him right’ for his team parking there.
Mario, who wasn’t with his staff, has since hit back at ‘online bullies’ to explain he paid Grange Park Community Centre £50 to sell burgers in the car park but it was almost full when his team arrived.
He says the only bays free at around 5pm, when the centre was still open, were the disabled ones so the community centre gave them permission to park there.
The father-of-two blames the centre for not reserving bays for them and claims his firm won’t be returning because of the access issue.
Mario said: ‘From the picture I can understand why people would want to b**ch, but obviously nobody would want to block anyone with a disability from being in a parking space.
‘It’s hurtful because they don’t understand the whole picture. They’re back-biting and b**ching to make them feel better than us and from an adult perspective that’s bullying. They’re trying to shame us.
‘[The community centre] rent the car park to us after hours so we’ve got authority to be there. We get there around five then most people leave as we start serving.
‘The whole car park is full and we get told to go wherever. There’s other spaces that could have been coned off. We’d love to keep the disabled bays free.
‘They said we could go there and when it’s authorised by the centre that you work with you go by their authority. If they say it’s fine and they run it then you’re happy to do as they say.
Mario has hit back at ‘online bullies’ and said they do not know the full story
The post has gone viral with Facebook users wading in to tell Mario it ‘serves him right’ for his team parking there
‘We’re the only ones in there paying but other people will come in and leave their cars there. It’s a bit of a nightmare. It’s our most difficult site to go in and out of. We’ve stopped going there [since the incident on July 22].
‘We like to work with people that can help us not be against us. When we can’t get a trailer out it holds our whole business off.’
He said he posted about the incident because he wanted to help the crew who were ‘stuck’.
‘It was resolved so quickly. Nobody in the scenario was upset at all and everyone was very polite. It was more the people online that were trying to bully us behind the keyboard.’
Mario set up his mobile takeaway business in 2018 and he now has five vehicles and 30 staff who visit communities to cook and sell their gourmet burgers.
He was worried the team wouldn’t be able to move the trailer 30 minutes to their next stop in Hardingstone, Northamptonshire but the Volkswagen owner moved the car in time.
Mario’s post alerting the Grange Park community said: ‘[Siren emoji] To the owner of this white Volkswagen in the Grange Park Community Centre car park. Please may you move ASAP.
‘You are blocking The Flavour Trailer and they can’t leave. You are holding up the whole operation. THIS IS URGERNT [sic] [siren emoji].’
One local commented: ‘They don’t mind taking up the disabled space though!’
Another commented: ‘Likely got council permission.’
The user hit back: ‘Still doesn’t make it right!’
Mario set up his mobile takeaway business in 2018 and he now has five vehicles and 30 staff who visit communities to cook and sell their gourmet burgers
Grange Park Community Centre’s car park where the trailer was parked across two disabled bays
Grange Park Parish Council, who manage the community centre, said: ‘Grange Park Parish Council were not aware of any issues. If we had known we would have worked with the parties to resolve the situation.’
A second said: ‘It was probably the person that wasn’t able to park in the allocated disabled space.’
A third said: ‘Bit dramatic. It’s a burger van not an ambulance.’
Another one questioned: ‘Has the trailer got a blue badge?’
Mario initially made his appeal in a closed Facebook group of more than 4,500 locals but annoyed users subsequently then shared it in a wider group of almost 240,000 members that shames ‘bad parking’.
A user in the second group wrote: ‘Found this funny this morning. The burger van is actually moaning that they can’t get out of the disabled bay.
‘A burger van. the same van blocking the only two disabled car parking spots in the car park and then goes on to say it’s urgent.’
One said: ‘Serves them right. Shouldn’t be parked there. The Volkswagen is parked correctly. Hoping the Volkswagen was parked up for a long shopping day.’
A second said: ‘It’s urgent, he has more disabled bays that need to be parked in. TIME IS MONEY.’
A third added: ‘I don’t see a problem. Maybe don’t park in a disabled spot.’
Grange Park Parish Council, who manage the community centre, said: ‘Grange Park Parish Council were not aware of any issues. If we had known we would have worked with the parties to resolve the situation.’
MailOnline has contacted Grange Park Parish Council
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