The truck arriving has the same impact on the neighbourhood as the first tank of an invading army. They call it a pyek (паяк) which translates as ‘spider’ because of the appearance of the crane on the back that lifts cars onto a trailer and takes them away. Despite the standard of parking in the city, vehicles are seemingly targeted at random - generally from patches of ground with bays outlined on the tarmac that don’t have any ‘no parking’ signs. Coincidentally, the cars that get removed often happen to be near food stalls where city workers congregate to eat.
