After dealing with $20 valet charges, $10 pay to park and Resident Parking Only grabbing all the parking spaces, some businesses are getting into the parking business no matter how illegal - or unsafe - they are.

Case in point - Bottle & Brew, not known for operating a steady ship anyways, now has four very camera-shy parking lot attendants who will sell you a spot for about $10, no matter how tight the fit.

These young businesspersons were not very happy about having their picture taken. One person got too close to BD's personal space and had to be reminded to get back behind the yellow line at the end of a can of pepper spray.

When BD talked to a manager on Friday night, he claimed these four entrepreneurs just showed up with a note from the owner saying they could operate a parking lot. The owner of this property also owns the Blockbuster/Whole Foods property.

And he was really excited they were going to let him have four parking spaces for his business.

BD asked if the manager would accept a note prepared on his computer from the owner saying he could operate the parking lot too, and he shook his head yes.

A fax to the owner asking about this new secondary business operating on the property was not answered on Saturday. BD was not surprised to see these same four guys working the lot again, plus directing overflow traffic to an unidentified parking lot across the street. [By process of elimination, the other parking lot is probably the one on the north side of Richmond which is used by Savan's, KTokyo and - surprise! - another c-store of questionable repute.]

For those who question the difference between this parking lot scam and the other parking lots operating on businesses around the area (e.g. Whole Foods, Dan's Pawn, the offices on 5700 Prospect), we have three words for you: Insurance, Permits, Size. In fact, after one driver asked BD why he was taking pictures of the parking lot and was told they probably had no insurance, he drove off in a flash.

BD can only hope the property owner picks up the phone on Monday and tells Bottle & Brew's owner, who never seems to be around in the evenings, that these four young idiots need to be deported to another parking scam - far far away from Lower Greenville.