"We have rung council and police on a number of occasions," said Mrs Williams, 54. "Everyone is being told what they can't do. I want people to think about what they can do."
She said a young male window washer started washing the hearse's windscreen about 4pm on Tuesday without asking her permission.
"Then when I yelled at him and said, 'Nobody touches my car without my permission', he started swearing at me and swiped his dirty brush down the side windows of my car."
While the light was still red, she got out and told the man: "You just stay away from my car, how dare you touch my car!"
Mr Williams said he had seen another driver assault a window washer.
"When a guy walked up and squirted his car, the driver jumped out and smashed him over. That is starting to happen," he said.
"Council doesn't want to know, the police don't want to know, nobody wants to know till something really bad happens. It's only a matter of time till someone gets killed."
Alex Potter, who works for optometrist Gary Filer overlooking the intersection, said five or more window washers were there most days, including weekends.
The council passed a bylaw in 2013 banning window washing if it is unsafe, intimidating, causing a nuisance or blocking traffic. However, it is legal if it is safe and not causing a nuisance.
A police spokeswoman said the council was the lead agency for enforcing the bylaw and complaints "may be referred to Auckland Council for follow up".
If it was deemed a more serious offence (such as intimidation, threats, abuse), a criminal charge could be laid, she said.
Council bylaws and compliance manager Max Wilde said prosecutions were occurring and two people have been convicted. "The latest was fined $300 that includes court costs. Auckland Council is also taking action against 10 others for breaching the bylaw."
Dirty business
The bylaw
"A person must not use a public place to ... wash or offer to wash a vehicle or any part thereof, in a manner that may be unsafe or intimidate or cause a nuisance to any person, or cause an obstruction to traffic." - Auckland Council Public Safety and Nuisance Bylaw 2013.
The practice
"Auckland Council applied a graduated enforcement process with window washers, focusing initially on education and achieving voluntary compliance when the bylaw first came in. We are now enforcing the window washing aspect of the bylaw by giving warnings to window washers, removing their equipment from them if they have been standing in the middle of traffic - which could cause harm to themselves - and if they were behaving in an intimidating way." - Max Wilde, manager bylaws and compliance.
Washer: I have a family to feed
Window-washer Luke, 29, cleans car windscreens because he can't find another job to feed his three children.
He has worked the intersection of Great South Road and Cavendish Drive "most days" for eight years, but said he did not see someone splash dirty water on a spotlessly clean hearse this week.
"I have a family to feed," he said. "They say there are a lot of jobs out there but it's not true. If this person wants us to get off the lights, maybe they should offer us a job."
He said he had a girl aged 6, a boy aged 4 and a 10-month-old baby daughter.
He was not on a benefit. "To get on a benefit you have to apply for about 20 jobs. They make it so difficult," he said. "How am I going to feed my kids in the meantime?"
He previously worked at the Sleepyhead bed factory and later started a landscaping business, but it "went bust".
He denied washing cars without drivers' permission.
"If you go up to wash a window and the person says no, you know you're not going to get paid so why wash the window?"
He said the income was not great, and he would take any job paying at least $23 an hour, but it was enough to put food on the table.
"I like it here because you're your own boss and you work your own hours."
