Truckers parked in a Walmart lot wake up to boots, a $500 fine, and a 1 hour time limit to pay up
A truck driver shared video of a confrontation between parking enforcement workers and a group of truckers at a Kentucky Walmart last week.
The video was captured by Ryan Bergdoll at the Walmart off of I-75 in Williamsburg, Kentucky, on June 25.
In the video, multiple truckers are awakened in the middle of the night to “boots” on their windshields and told they have just one hour to pay the $500 fee to have the boots removed. Bergdoll shared the Facebook Live video in a closed group and the video was later re-shared by Tristian Mullins.
Bergdoll talked to CDLLife to describe the events leading up to the confrontation with Walmart parking enforcement group R and R Parking Management.
“My 11 hours were up. I had stopped at the Pilot and checked for parking — there wasn’t any. So I went over to Walmart where there were 2 Walmart trucks plus 6 or 7 others. I pulled up, pulled my brakes, and ended my log. Around 11:30ish I walked out and put my garbage in a can. Then I went in [the Walmart store] and spent roughly $50 in groceries. Paid, walked out, put my groceries away, and pushed the cart back in the corral as well as grabbing another cart that was out. Crawled up in the bunk, now around 12:30 — 1:00 a.m. They “knocked” (a courtesy knock which I never heard) and that was around 3:45 — 4 a.m. Then they knocked so loud I thought my truck was hit and that’s when I woke up to them telling me that I had 1 hour to pay the $500 parking violation or my truck and trailer would be towed at my expense.”
Bergdoll said that he hadn’t seen any ‘no truck parking’ signage due to the number of trucks already parked in the lot. Bergdoll says in the video that he has parked in the Walmart lot “hundreds and hundreds” of times without issue.
Though the R and R Parking Management worker in the video says that the sleeping drivers were warned with a knock before they were booted, Bergdoll says that he is skeptical that they did so.
When we asked how the confrontation ended as far as he knew, Bergdoll said, “I paid the ticket with an EFS check. My company was going to call and I have not heard other than from my trucking family on here.”
You can view the video below.
A number of other truck drivers have reported similar run-ins with R and R Parking Management, including well-known singer Brad James, who also shared his encounter on Facebook Live after he was awakened around 3 a.m. at a Brea, Kentucky Walmart location.
Truck parking policies at Walmart locations vary. When in doubt, it never hurts to call a Walmart location and speak to the manager about overnight truck parking policies.