I know, it’s not very nice to laugh at others’ misfortune, but today’s little incident was the most entertainment we’ve had since the season premiere of Breaking Bad … and so much funnier!

We had just walked out of a supermarket in Irkutsk, sat down on a seat in one of the main streets to share a block of Ritter chocolate, and noticed a tow truck on the road right in front of us, about to hook up a car and tow it away. And then we noticed a couple more tow trucks, and a policeman. The cars were parked in a 30 minute zone, but we think they got pinged because they were angle-parked and jutting into the traffic. The cars that were parallel-parked didn’t get towed away. In total, 5 cars were towed while we sat and watched, several more were driven away by their owners and as we walked down the street, we noticed that one tow-truck was back to pick up his second car. Apparently simple parking fines don’t work in this town, so the cops have resorted to towing and impounding cars instead.

The owner of the first car arrived on the scene just after it had been loaded onto the truck, so he did the only thing he could – hopped into the truck with the driver and his offsider to go and pay the hefty fine to get his car back. We didn’t see any other owners, but it would have been most disconcerting to get back to one’s car and discover it wasn’t there. And then to go to the police station to report it missing and find out why … well, we did laugh. I know, it’s mean, and in case  you don’t already know, or haven’t yet worked it out, here’s the definition of Schadenfreude

The first car to be towed away. By the time we left, the rest had also been towed.

Tow trucks removing illegally parked cars