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West Toledo homeowners turn yards into paid parking for Solheim Cup spectators

These homeowners have been able to make a few extra bucks living in a prime location right across the street from the entrance of the Inverness Golf Club.

TOLEDO, Ohio — Just steps away from all the action of the Solheim Cup tournament, some locals are getting a different experience.

About a dozen people living on Penn, Thobe, and Eileen roads are using their front and back yards as parking spots for fans. It's safe to say they've hit a hole in one with where they live: right across the street from the entrance of the Inverness Golf Club.

"We've had Winsconsin and Missouri and I think maybe five states parked in our front yard," one of the neighbors, Diana Spalding, said.

For nearly a week, hundreds of cars have used the quiet west Toledo neighborhood as a parking lot for the Solheim cup tournament.

The families who live on these roads have offered up their lawns to spectators for $20 a spot. They only charged $10 per day for the practice rounds, but as the main event arrived on Saturday, prices rose.

"This is our childhood home. So whenever they have an event at Inverness, which unfortunately doesn't happen too often, we have come out and parked cars in the past. So this is like going back to our childhood and reliving it a little bit," one woman, who didn't want to be identified, said.

Solheim week has been something neighbors looked forward to. Availability of spaces ranged from 15-50 cars per yard. At $20 a car, that's some nice pocket change.

"There was an event that Inverness had a few years ago and it was the same situation with the parking. We didn't really partake in it that year, but the neighbors up and down Penn Road did," a resident said. "So this year, we knew it was coming and decided we needed to act on it."

Ginny Pait didn't realize how many people would actually pay to park in her yard.

"I had a gentleman knock at my door weeks before the event came here and wanted to rent a spot in my front yard to be able to come and go. He wanted to know if I would do it and I was not planning to park, but that's where it began," Pait said.

Talking to spectators has been fun, the new entrepreneurs said, not forgetting the added perk of making some extra money.

Pait hasn't added up how much her lot had made. Whatever the total, it's going to help her brother.

"My brother is a below-the-leg amputee and we are in desperate need of a ramp to help get him up the steps. So I'm going to use it to help do that," Pait said.

Meanwhile, spectators have taken advantage of the parking for a number of reasons; the proximity to the course and the price the neighbors are charging are the two biggest.

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