Extreme Dibs: Little Snow, But Drivers Aggressively Claiming Spots

By John Dodge

CHICAGO (CBS) -- With no more than a few inches on snow on the ground, some folks have already started to take the practice of "dibs" to a new extreme.

For the uninitiated, "dibs" is the often hotly debated practice of placing objects to reserve a street parking spot in the city.

The logic behind it centers on the idea that a person who took the time and effort to shovel the spot should be able to reserve it.

The above photograph from Pilsen, which was posted on the Chicago Reddit page, seems to be problematic for a few reasons.

First, the "dibster" has not only used a public safety sign--and quite an important one at that--but the person has propped up the post on a bag of garbage and an empty beer box, filled with snow.

(Update: David Mahler, who took the photo, told CBS 2 that the sign was removed for construction and apparently was moved to the parking spot.)

Second, while this person took the time to fill the box with snow, there is little evidence of any attempt to actually shovel the spot.

It is also unclear if there is actually beer being chilled in the box, which would be nice to provide the neighbors, inconvenienced by the practice.