Especially when the party is at their home....at the end of a cul-de-sac, and the person throwing the party just realized that all of the attendees parking in a residential neighborhood may give it away.

If one must do this, do it at a restaurant, that way the birthday boy or girl knows to show up at a certain time, and the person throwing it just needs to hope the celebrant doesn't recognize all of the familiar cars in the lot.

My wife's company has probably lost about 30 man-hours trying to figure this out today.

I've been to a few in a restaurant that went well. I even brought the guy for one of them. I had the valet take the car to avoid the parking lot. Flawless.

I've been to one on a cul-de-sac and actually it worked. I forget if there was a park or what was done with the cars because it was dark and in Miami for someone I barely knew but it worked somehow.

They always seem to work great at restaurants, in my experience.

Granted, i can see why the cul-de-sac party would need to be expertly planned.