COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) – Parking disputes aren’t out of the ordinary, but one Colorado Springs business owner’s reaction is gaining a lot of attention online and stirring up some controversy.
WARNING: Some details in this article may be considered offensive given the nature of the mural. An unedited version of the infamous mural can be viewed at a link at the bottom of this article.
Fallen Heroes Tattoo & Piercing owner David Brown says the problems with a neighboring apartment complex started a few months ago. His business is located east of Old Colorado City in Colorado Springs. Next to Brown’s business is a five-story apartment complex. The parking situation is not ideal for the complex or Brown’s business, with a small lot behind the many businesses Brown shares the building with and several spots on the street off of Colorado Avenue.
There is an alley between the two buildings, but the parking lots directly across from the west side of Fallen Heroes belong to the apartment complex and are parking only. There are signs on the side of the apartment complex that say the lot is private permit-only parking, but there are no signs at the Fallen Heroes building. Employees say they don’t want to hang signs over a pre-existing mural advertising their store.
Brown claims that over the course of about four months, 30 to 40 of his customers had their vehicles towed from the lot that has private parking signs, but not on the side adjacent to Brown’s building.
Brown believes the apartment complex could do more to prevent the tow.
In response to allegations that the neighboring apartment complex was responsible for the recall, Brown had painted a massive mural of male genitalia on his roof and posted the process on Instagram.
“A new apartment complex just opened near the store. They have towed all of our customers vehicles along with other customers from nearby businesses, we tried to play fair but now we are going to fight the ad*** mural,” Brown posted in the social media video.
Some residents of the apartment complex 11 News spoke with didn’t even know the purpose of the mural.
“It was disturbing,” explained one anonymous resident. “I don’t have children or anything, I’m 40 years old. but even as an adult, I don’t want to look out the window, I have a nice view of the city center because I’m on the east side.”
The mural is a cartoon style personifying the male genitalia. There are more than a dozen of these genitals on the roof, one riding a hot air balloon, another on a bicycle and a coupe car. KKTV 11 News is choosing not to share some other salacious details of the mural, but an unedited version can be viewed by accessing a link at the bottom of this article.
“I can understand the confusion of people who park by the building,” Brown said. “It would make sense to me, the dots look like they are part of the building. No bullet points or anything like that. I can’t blame anyone who would accidentally park there for either spot.”
Brown isn’t blaming the towing company and says he understands they have a job to do.
There is a fairly new Colorado law when it comes to “non-consensual” vehicle towing. By law, towing companies are now required to give 24 hours notice before towing a vehicle from private residential property, but a vehicle can be towed immediately and without warning in the following situations:
- The residential lot requires a parking permit but the vehicle does not have one or the permit is not visible or valid.
- The vehicle is parked in a fire lane or in a parking space designated by another person.
- The vehicle blocks a road or a road.
- Among other new requirements, a towing carrier must release a vehicle if the vehicle owner pays the lesser of 15% of the total charges, or $60, and agrees to pay the remaining balance at a later date. Towing carriers are also required to release a vehicle free of charge upon request if it is still on the private property where it was parked.
The attraction company representing the apartment complex is enforcing the law based on the fact that this lot requires a permit.
When asked why Fallen Heroes employees don’t tell their customers about the private plot when they enter the store, they explained that the way their store works they don’t always have the opportunity to do so.
A representative of the property management company for the apartment complex sent KKTV 11 News the following text message:
The Colorado Springs Police Department says this case is not one of “graffiti” because the building owner approved it.
“If the dots were individually labeled, I think we’d have zero problem,” Brown added.
11 News is trying to connect Lipka with Brown. Brown says the dispute could be resolved if the apartment complex paints the parking spots.
11 News had follow-up questions for Lipka, but we have not heard back since we sent the questions Wednesday.
GRAPHIC WARNING:
Click here to see the original Instagram post showing the blurry mural.
Copyright 2024 KKTV. All rights reserved.