This should be good

David Farrier writes:

You might remember a while ago — back in 2016 — I wrote about the incredibly weird tale behind Bashford Antiques. It told the story of a New Zealand antiques store that became quite obsessed with clamping cars. It created such a kerfuffle it hit the 6pm news down here.

The reason it got out of hand is that people were being charged up to $760 to have their cars unclamped. Which is quite a bit of money for half an hour’s parking.

Now, if you’re not from from New Zealand: we had this weird legal loophole here, where if you parked on private property (say, a store’s car park), the business owner could put a clamp on your car, then demand whatever they wanted before they’d take it off.

Obviously, that law existed to discourage people parking in parks that weren’t theirs, but charges of $760 showed the system was being abused.

I wrote about the whole saga, drawn into a truly bizarre world of shadowy figures, alleged royal lineages, legal threats, court, and — to sum it all up — a bunch of weird shit… all leading back to one guy:

The guy is Michael Organ, also known as Count Michael Andrassy-Organe, and Prince Michael Organe-Schirinksi.

I can’t wait for the documentary. I’ve followed the saga over the years and it is just morbidly fascinating.