Snowstorm parking wars turn violent as cities crack down, neighbors clash and police warn of escalation

Vying for a parking spot on a crowded city street after a snowstorm has long felt like going to battle, and now there's a harrowing twist. 

Many city officials and others are furious about what's happening. They say it's unethical, even illegal. 

After spending hours in the bitter cold shoveling heavy snow out of parking spaces, many Northeast residents have been laying claim to the small rectangles of asphalt they just cleared away, angering and upsetting others. 

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From Boston to Philadelphia, Baltimore to Washington, D.C., drivers are reviving a time-honored tradition of grabbing anything they can find — chairs, cones, garbage cans — and using the items as space savers so that no one steals their spot.

Drivers have a dilemma. Massive snow banks, often piled high in urban areas, make already-scarce parking even more limited. 

While putting a chair in a parking spot may seem like a simple gesture, saving spaces has created friction among residents.

The disputes have been referred to as "retaliation, fights and vandalism" by WBUR, a Boston University-owned radio station. 

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Last week, a fight over a space saver involving multiple individuals left a man in critical condition in Philadelphia. 

Police say one man had a knife and another had a legally owned handgun. Both men "placed their weapons down and continued fighting," according to local police.

"It's very disturbing," Philadelphia Police Sgt. Eric Gripp said of the situation, according to ABC News.

"That's why we do take this seriously. Even though it seems like it's not that serious of an issue, unfortunately, over the years we've seen some really tragic results," he added. 

Space savers became a ritual in Chicago after the record-setting blizzard of January 1967, which blanketed the city with 23 inches of snow, according to numerous accounts. 

Some cities refer to the phenomenon as calling "dibs" on parking spots. Others call it "savesies." In Pittsburgh, the practice is so legendary that residents named it the Pittsburgh Parking Chair.

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Lawn chairs and traffic cones are common choices. But in Boston, space savers have reportedly included a vacuum cleaner and a toilet, according to Boston.com. 

Philadelphia car owners have used folding tables and plastic bins. Baltimore and D.C. residents have lugged trash cans and patio furniture into the street.

"We see a lot of beach chairs," Frank Ippolito Jr., owner of Ippolito Snow Services in the Boston area, told Fox News Digital. 

"A unique one this year: Someone put an ironing board out there, which I thought was pretty nifty."

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Ippolito Jr., whose family started the business 53 years ago, said the January storm was particularly bad. He said space-saving was "used tremendously this winter because people are out there shoveling for hours and hours."

In Philadelphia, the police department has made it clear that space savers are illegal in its city.

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Meanwhile, Baltimore's mayor, Brandon Scott, said at the end of January, "If you put a lawn chair out there, and I see it, it's going away.

"But if you're doing that, take the next step. If you have an elderly neighbor, dig their spot out too," he said. 

"Don't just dig yours out."

Baltimore's Department of Transportation said "chairs and other objects do not reserve parking spaces. They make snow removal dangerous; they can get caught in plows, damage vehicles and prevent us from fully clearing the street."

Ten years ago, D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier issued the same warning that many public officials are issuing today.

"When people try to start saving that space, we start to see little tensions flare up between neighbors," she told local news outlets in January 2016 after a significant snowfall in the nation's capital. 

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"Nobody [has] the legal right to save their own space on public streets."