Neighbors upset over Brooklyn man using cones to block off sports car

PARK SLOPE -- There's a fight brewing in Brooklyn over one of New York City's most coveted assets -- a parking spot.

So how far should one person be allowed to go to protect a parking spot on the street? Some residents in the Park Slope section claim one man, who owns a nice, flashy sports car, is taking it too far.

"It's not fair to everyone on the block," one resident said.

That man's dream car is causing parking nightmares for his neighbors along 54th Street.

"It's difficult to get parking in the neighborhood, and here's a person who just basically feels he has his own private spot there," a neighbor said.

With limited opposite side of the street parking, neighbors claim William Caraballo is stealing coveted space.

And there's nothing subtle about the neon orange sports car, nor Caraballo's approach to reserving his parking spot with six neon orange cones.

But when Eyewitness News caught up with Caraballo, his explanation for the elaborate set up was pretty practical.

"It's my first brand new car," he said. "I want to protect it as much as possible."

Caraballo says he bought the car in May and uses the cones to protect it from harm, not reserve spaces.

"I don't leave my cones sitting there to reserve a spot for me, because I'm nobody special," he said.

He also claims he follows the parking rules and switches out his other family car from time to time to hold the space.

So what about his neighbors? Caraballo says he had no idea his car was drawing this sort of attention, but he'll take the good with the bad.

"It's a car," he said. "People like it. They walk up to it, they enjoy it. I get a lot of good attention from it. I didn't think I was going to get this much attention from it."