Sometimes you have to conjure something out of nothing.
It was in my times of absolute broke-itude, that I needed to come up with a way to make money out of absolutely nothing. With only my thoughts.
I remember walking around town with boo, talking and laughing and trying to figure out what my “next” in life would be.
Next job, next big phase, next big *change*. Something to *jolt* me out of that complacency that was setting in.
With my money dwindling I wanted to do something big, maybe even something drastic, anything to take me out of the comfortable habits I had let myself fall into.
I remember as we walked, that I would comment on some parking lots we walked past–either empty or nearly empty–I wondered how that could POSSIBLY be (anywhere) in LA county.
They were near residences in a main part of town, in streets, and I wondered if anyone owned them, they sure didn’t maintain them, neither was there any security measures surrounding these lots. Maybe 1 or 2 had a chain and lock but those could easily be cut. The lots were in generally good condition. Or at least a condition I could repair if I had control of them. Make it more appealing.
I would joke that since it was clearly a missed opportunity, I should replace their signage with my own. My own QR codes leading to my own payment app, so anyone that would find these lots would just scan the code and then I’d then be ROLLING in it. At first I noticed the one lot close to home, then a handful more around town. I guess I considered the fact that it could be mob-owned or something, but I dont’ think a mob would just let this type of easy money slide.
After a few times of these strolls on different occasions over a few months, and noticing no rise in activity in the lots. I decided maybe my jokes weren’t jokes but a serious seed money idea. I could do this to see if my scheme worked and then if it did at least I’d have more money than before. I could literally get some giant magnetic QR codes printed, put them over their signs , with a number to reach in case of anything.
So I did just that. I changed the name of my payment app to some generic parking name so that every lot would pay the one account. And at night I would go around and place my codes on these signs. At first only around town, where I could passively keep an eye on them and see if there was an increase in activity.
At first, I did daily and nightly parking, but figured I could get a regular income if people paid monthly. At best, money. At worst, probably my signs would get taken and down and I’d be tracked by my payment app. Possibly arrested for “theft” or fraud of some kind.
Maybe I was too cavalier, but at the time I felt like even THAT would be an interesting story. Something to experience. Something to laugh about in the retelling of it.
Ava Loreimy 