"Beat & Release": Parking Dispute Leaves Shopowner "Bob" With Broken Leg, in Erzurum

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 15 March 2025)

"Bob" needs to make his parking sign more threatening.

In Yakutiye district of Erzurum on 6 March ,Ahmet Taştan (44)

(also known as "Bob") noticed a car parked in front of his store.  

He waited in vain until evening for the car's owner to come and 

then called the phone number he saw on the car's windshield, 

intending to ask the owner to move his car so store supplies could 

be unloaded. 

The phone call devolved into an argument and when the

car's owner showed up with some friends, the rancor heated

up,  but passers-by intervened to quell the dispute for the 

moment. 

However (!), after the evening Ramazan "iftar" meal, the

car's owner called Taştan and summoned him to the scene

of the earlier dispute.  As soon as Taştan got out of his car,

though, he was attacked from behind by a friend of the 

problematic car's owner and then beaten badly by the 

group.  Taştan's knee ligament was torn and one leg

broken.  He was taken to a hospital for treatment and filed

a police complaint against his assailants.