This has come up a few times on the forums but I'm not sure that there's been a thread for it yet.
What do you all believe is ok for people to do to your car when you leave it unattended in a parking lot?
Read on for a short story of one of my experiences last year:

One morning I went to a French bakery in an upscale part of town so that I could get these particular pastries that my girlfriend at the time really enjoyed. I brought my phone and my camera with into the store because they just happened to be in my cargo shorts still.

I always park in the back of the parking lots when I can. I’ll even take up two spots and if possible share one or more sides with a curb so no one can park on that side of the Elise. This day was no different and I had probably a 3 to 5 minute walk to the store in the strip mall.

I come out to a guy sitting in my car! He’s maybe 40 years old (I’m 28 at the time). He’s gripping the steering wheel and smiling like some madman. As he’s reaching for the shifter I take out my camera and snap a few quick shots.

I ask him, “This is a sweet car, how long have you had it?”
He looks up and says, “Actually ummmm, I’m just borrowing it from a friend.”
I say, “You mind if I take a few pictures of it?”
He says, “Go for it.”

So I took one more picture of him very close up (the others were a bit far away and I wasn’t able to immediately identify him in the viewer). I said, “The cops will love that one when they get here.” He looks at me as I took out my cell phone and his face gets all red.

“This is MY car you *****, and as far as I can tell you’re attempting to steal it.”
(I hit my alarm system and it makes the telltale chirp that it’s been set off recently.) This is when it dawns on the guy that it really IS my car. And panic sets over his face.

I open the door for him and told him to get out of the car. He’s begging me not to call the cops, how he’s some business manager somewhere and that he’s very sorry but he just had to sit in the car because it was so cool. I tell him to explain it all to the police that I wasn’t in the mood for someone who felt they were above social decency and respect for others. I told him to sit on the curb and wait for the cops.

He bolted.

I got a picture of his Cadillac Escalade and the plates. I described the scenario to the dispatcher on the phone who said if there was no damage to the property that there was little they could do. I looked over the car and the portion where he must have stepped on the door and vaulted himself over the window into the driver seat. I saw no damage. It turned out later that there were actually two very small chips out of the paint, but some dirt that was probably from his shoes covered these. I’m still pretty bitter about it.

My question to those of you who read this far what is and/or isn’t acceptable to do to a car when it’s unattended?

Same parking lot, same bakery destination a month or so later:

I come out to the car and find a father (35-years old maybe) and son (5 years old) admiring the vehicle. At this point neither of them is touching the car. That’s great; admire the beauty of the machine all you’d like as far as I’m concerned! Even take pictures if you’d like. As I’m standing outside the car and the father is getting closer and asking questions like “how much does one cost, where did you get it, how fast does it go?” .. his son starts LICKING the car. Yes, licking it, like a lollypop.

The licking doesn’t concern me as much as the buttons on his overalls that are starting to clank against the car. I kept my cool and asked politely, “Could you please not let your son touch the car, I’d appreciate it.” He looked at me like I was trying to molest his kid (even though I was a good 10 feet from them), and scowled at me. Then let the kid keep going. I got pretty bent and said, “I just put some pretty harsh chemicals on the car when I cleaned it this morning and your child will likely get very sick if you let him continue.” ONLY then did he quickly yank his kid away, while glaring at me as if I were trying to kill his kid ...

I told him, “Step away from the car please, I need to get going.” I hopped in as fast as I could and took off swearing never to park the car in the lot again … at least not without a video camera on it (I haven’t been back there since). The small scratches that were left from the buttons came out with clay later that evening.

What’s with these adults?

So, warning to those of you who travel to Edina, in Minnesota. You may not want to leave your car alone around the self-righteous wealthy elite that inhabits the area. Several of them believe that they own you and your property.