A British man, Haroon Zafaryab, has won a larger victory than he planned for. His battle began, as modern struggles so often do, when his car was ticketed and "clamped" — i.e. had a "boot" attached to a wheel. He had parked in a no parking zone behind a shopping mall while he went to the mosque for Ramadan services, and his car was clamped by a private towing company, as is allowed in England. These are, apparently, free to "hunt" those who have parkd wrongly on posted private land, and they charge a hefty fee to remove the clamp.
Zafaryab felt the towing company wanted too much, and so, to prevent their towing it, he simply refused to leave his car — for thirty hours! During that time the towing company clamped all of his wheels and stuck a ticket on his windshield very half hour. By the time they were done, their reckoning was that he owed them £6,000. Meanwhile, his supporters gathered and friends from the mosque brought him food and drink.
Finally, a deal was struck whereby the towing company backed off, unclamped the car, and accepted £100.
This would be enough to lift the spirits of the common man. But, as they say, there's more:
The government announced the same day he was unclamped that the law would be changed, forbidding private towing companies from clamping cars on private property and introducing a fairer system of ticketing.
Not bad for a bit of uncomfortable overtime.
The New York Times has the story, as, of course, does the BBC, among many others. The video below lets you see Mr. Zafaryab talk a bit about his experience.
I should add that, on a more serious note, the issue of private ticketing was addressed by the Ontario Court of Appeal in Municipal Parking Corporation v. Toronto (City), 2007 ONCA 817, and Imperial Parking Corporation v. Toronto (City), 2007 ONCA 649. The judgments didn't address the legality of towing cars parked on private property.
Somehow my first response got lost.
Homer Simpson found his car clamped in the 1997 episode "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson". Homer's solution was drive the car with the clamp. This didn't turn out to be a good solution.