Car Got Clamped in Publika

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I just got back home from a short trip to Publika where I had my regular facial at Sothy's. I am now 8 months pregnant, so obviously my tummy is pretty big already. Still needed that regular facial maintenance so I still went for it.

As I circled around for parking, I could not find any around 3:20pm. I guess the office crowd have not yet started their exodus and everywhere was full. I badly needed to go toilet and chanced upon one of the roving guards in the parking lot. I asked in English if I could park at the Handicap area since I am pregnant, needed to pee and also hard for me to walk very far (and smell all that exhaust & fumes). He was nice and said yes, pointed out the Handicap area to me. So I parked there.

Imagine my surprise after an hour, my car was clamped! There was a sign placed on the windshield on which number to call to "unclamp" and pay RM100.

To be on the fair side, when I called the number, they picked up immediately and witin 5 minutes sent a guard to come. The guard had a receipt booklet in hand, I guess ready to charge me RM100. However, after I explained the situation, he knew it was beyond him so he radioed headquarters using the pay machine intercom. I had to explain my situation on the intercom (imagine me speaking to the big pay machine), and they said they had to call management. While waiting, I did some small talk with the guard, and discovered that all the guards in Publika are from Nepal. They speak a bit of English, not much, but enough to understand the situation. And so, we waited.

After another 10 minutes of wait, they sent 2 Chinese guys who seem to be from the management or office, plus another guard. I explained my situation to them and they were asking me if I knew the guard's name. Nope, I can just describe him and didn't bother checking the name. So they called someone again on the phone to explain the situation at hand, and after another 5 minutes, they asked me to sign a form to explain the situation and get my contact details.

I firmly believe that their management should consider allowing pregnant women to park at the handicap zones. I wrote that comment in that sheet they submitted, and I sincerely hope they will do something about it.

Overall, I would say that despite the initial shock of seeing my car clamped, their management handled the situation well. I just hope that they can do something about that Handicap area and state somewhere that pregnant women can also park next time. This will surely make many, many women happy. Such consideration for pregnant women will be appreciated by many, especially those who have children with them (imagine pregnant plus handling kids). We all have mothers, we all came from a woman who carried us for 9 months. It is not an easy task.

Many families like to go to Publika for some food and grocery shopping. A lot of expats like me, who live in Mont Kiara, would frequent the place with their kids. This added provision for pregnant women parking at Handicap areas would surely be a big help to many families.

I hope the management of Publika will do something about it.