Chaotic Side of Yard Sale Season in Indiana Neighborhoods

'Tiss the season for yard sales, or maybe you call them garage sales, tag sales, or rummage sales. Some people have another word for these pop-up sales: CHAOS!

While yard sales can be a fun way to make some extra cash and declutter your home, they can also cause chaos in a neighborhood. One prime example happened at a Northern Vanderburgh County community yard sale a couple of weeks ago.

Photo: Tami Young Staub Evansville Watch

Chaos at Cambridge Village

Some neighborhoods come together for annual yard sales, so they can attract more shoppers. This can lead to all sorts of problems. That was the case a couple of Saturdays ago in the Cambridge Village golf community. Now, this is one of the nicest areas to live in Vanderburgh County, so people planned to go to this sale way in advance. What the homeowners were not prepared for was the amount of traffic that this would bring in.

Emergency Vehicles Blocked

Imagine nearly 200 cars in one neighborhood, parked along the streets, and blocked entire roadways just for some garage sale deals. That was the situation at Cambridge, and this led to some very tense moments as emergency crews attempted to work through the traffic to answer a medical emergency call.

Traffic Alert- Cambridge Village Neighborhood & Old State Rd. Scott FD is enroute to a medical emergency and they're advising that the roadway is completely gridlocked due to multiple yardsales in the subdivision. Scott FD advising there's over 150-200 cars here. Medics are having to leave their apparatuses parked in the roadway and walk with the cot to the emergency. VCSO is being dispatched now. Another 911 caller is now stating that VCSO needs to hurry up as people are now tearing up the golf course. Multiple VCSO units are enroute

Is Hiring Private Security the Solution?

Photo: yard sale canva Terry Ray Gist

Parking problems: With more people coming into the neighborhood, there may be a shortage of parking spaces. This can lead to people parking in front of other people's homes, blocking driveways, or parking in no-parking zones.