At JPL, if you have a Ph.D., are in management, have any seniority, or are in a car-pool (most common car pool at JPL is husband & wife), you get to park your car on-lab. For the rest of us, you get to park in one of the two lots outside the security gates. The east lot is huge and rarely more than 2/3rds full. Unfortunately, its a 15-20 minute walk from your car in the east lot to the center of lab, where most of the big office buildings are located. In addition, the east lot closes at 8pm, so if you are going to work late, or just have shifted hours, you'll have to go back out after 5pm and move your car to the west lot or onto lab.
The west lot, on the other hand, is right across from the front gate, and is only a 5 minute walk to the heart of the lab. The west lot, of course, is also much smaller and fills up very quickly. You won't find any parking in the west lot much after 9am. At around 10:30 or 11 am, the first people start to leave the lab, heading to lunch or to run a few errands. This is a perfect time to arrive and find a space. Unfortunately, all the employees who like to sleep late know this, and usually there are many cars waiting in the isles.
At JPL, there have always been lots of immigrants working on lab (well at least during the past 20-30 years.) When the Soviet Union fell, there were suddenly a lot more Russians and Ukranians employed at the lab.
One day in the fall of 1993, I arrived in the west lot around 11am, ready for work. Of course, the lot was full, so I waited at the security gate turnstyle for someone to exit the lab. On this day, an overly dressed (JPL is very informal) Russian lady, about 50, with lots of makeup and rather expensive clothes, came out of the turnstyle. In my car I started to follow her to her car. She started up one isle, I pulled into that isle. She started to get very fidgetty. She then cut across to the next isle. (The isles are one way, with the parked cars at an angle so you can only pull into the parking spot from the correct one-way direction.) Thinking that she simply has forgotten where she parked her car, I zoom ahead and turn down the next isle. Unfortunately, another car is already half way down that isle and stops waiting for her to get to her car so that he can grab her parking space. I then see her cut back across to the first isle. So I back out of that isle, turn down the next one way isle, and get back around to the first isle. I catch up to her just as she reaches her car. I stop. She gives me a dirty look, and screams "Leave me alone. I don't do such things!". I now realize that she thinks that I've been sexually harassing her. I yell back "Lady, I work here. The only thing I'm interest in is your parking spot." She gets in her car and zooms off.