I caught a parking agent illegally issuing me a ticket

[GL]

I had to pick up my girlfriend form her work at a local hospital. There is metered parking outside the hospital, so I found a space, popped 75 cents into the metre (good enough for 10 minutes) and went inside to pick up my girlfriend. 3 minutes later, we walked outside back to the car and I saw the hospital security guard, with ticket pad in hand writing down my license plate and just about to peel the ticket from his pad. Here comes the best part...I look at him, then I look at the metre - 7 minutes left! He looks up and realizes he's caught and breaks a very embarassed grin, then says "oh..err.umm Good morning sir" - it's the afternoon - and I smile back with one of those "I've caught you" smiles and say "good afternoon". Caught red-handed...little bastard!

Now, this is funny because I didn't get a ticket. But this is so corrupt! If I had been issued a ticket, the burden of proof would have been on me...what judge would believe me if I said "But I had 7 minutes left on the metre...when I rolled out of the parking space to go home there was still 5 minutes left...I don't know why I was issued a ticket". I'd get a big loud "Yeah, sure!".

Anyway, the moral of the story is get to your metered parking space well before the time expires...you never know when these guys decide to ticket you - it could be well before the metre expires!

-GL

 

[Relf Lauren]

I was reading your post, and I was thinking.....

Say if you were on vacation, and you were driving to your vacation spot (say you lived in Toronto, and you drove down to Florida)...

Well, what happens if a police officer gives you a bogus ticket for speeding?...What are you going to do, go to court and argue it? You will have to pay, unless you want to ruin your vacation....

Damn law enforcers

Relf Lauren

 

[Viper GTS]

RL...

I don't know about Florida, but here in Oregon traffic court dates are like a month and a half form the issue date on the ticket. Granted, you might have to make a special trip back if you're that intent on fighting it, but you shouldn't have to ruin your vacation for a ticket.

Viper GTS

 

[PhaZe]

Do you guys remember that big contraversy over the elderly lady who put like money in someone esles meter to help em out so they wouldnt get a ticket?
Didnt she get in trouble for that, or a ticket...
man that would suck, trying to do something nice and something bad comes in return

 

[jorken]

Suppose you do get speeding or something like that in another state. Does that affect your insurance, i mean do you still get points added. I know I ran a red in another state and got nabbed for it, but I never saw an increase in insurance bills nor have my points gone up. I'm pretty sure you get points for running a red. And this was a little over a year ago. Whats the deal with that?

 

[ColdTech]

Jorken Depends on the state... I Have A NV lissence even though I have been in ID for over a year because all tickets & suck I get here dont show up on my NV lissence & therefore dont affect my insurrance... But if the sit. was refersed & I wan in NV with the ID lissence all tickets from NV would show on my ID lissence

 

[Triumph]

what the hell did he just say?

 

[Viperoni]

He said something???

 

[huey1124]

what he said...


Nevada -- hick state with a dumb DMV
Idaho -- hick state with a greedy DMV


i grew up in Nevada btw

 

[jimmygates]

I got a ticket in a different county which was 3 hours away from my home. I didn't want to drive all the way there to show up for court so I did some research on the California Courts. Turns out there is something called "Written Declaration" which basically means you fight your ticket through letters instead of showing up for court.


-jimbo

 

[DABANSHEE]

Hey Neo, On the Gold Coast, here in Australia, the Chamber of Commerce employ 'Meter Maids', which are swimsuit models & they go arround in gold bikinis putting money in everyones parking meters, to encourage people to stay longer, along the strip)

 

[PCAddict]

I got a ticket once that I am sure I received because I was from out-of-state and they knew I wouldn't fight it. I was so mad about it that I considered going to fight it. But the cost of going back there would have been more than 2X the fine, so I blew it off and paid the fine. It really sucks.

 

[snoogans]

THanks for clearing that up, Huey

 

[perry]

Here at school, the meters have buttons on them you can push to get the first 15 minutes for free. Park in one of those metered spots near the center of campus and you can usually park for a few hours for free. Kids walk along and push the buttons on all the meters so the parking police can't write tickets. Kinda cool. Parking here sucks ($330/year for a permit), and I guess it's just way to kinda siliently rebel against them

 

[ratkil]

There have been quite a few stories of people getting in trouble for putting money in other people's meters. There have actually been people jailed, I don't remember what charge was used, but it has hit the news occasionally. I have always thought it would be fun, if you happen to see a meter cop, to get in front of them and just stay there putting money in each meter that has run out of time.

 

[desy]

Why didn't you contact his supervisor and ask them if its their policy to write up tickets before meters expire?
Even if this guy just gets it put in his record he's gonna think twice and so would all the others. This stuff perpetuates unless you make an issue out of it.
Then if you don't get an apology write to your local paper in under letters to the editor, they love this kind of stuff.
I lot of people complain of police corrution and such about the cop and the rake guy but this is how you can actually do something to improve the situation.
You force public awareness to be focused on them and policys and procedures will follow.
Don't miss this perfect opportunity to make a difference.

 

[Eeks]

That is SO sketch. WHy? Why? Did someone do something to them as a child?

 

[StageLeft]

I would also complain about this, just wouldn't stand for it.

 

[Raspewtin]

I wonder if complaining does any good with the police. Somehow I doubt it. If you're black or hispanic where I live, you get pulled over for sneezing.

 

[OrByte]

Unless you speak up, its gonna continue to happen. I agree with the others you should b!tch about it to someone.

 

[403Forbidden]

you gotta rake in thouse rouge cops!

 

[GL]

Actually, the ticket wasn't issued by a police officer. Here in Toronto, we've got these corrupt *private* ticketing agencies. Basically, if you own a parking lot you can issue your own tickets as police don't ticket private lots. They make the ticket up to *look* just like a Toronto Police ticket though. Every one of the cars in that strip of metered parking spaces was ticketed, and I just lucked out in being at the very end of that strip. I was stupid...I should have checked if other people had time on their metres but I was so caught up in the moment.

My mom's a nurse at the hospital and the security agency for that hospital is responsible for the ticketing. They are known to be completely incompetent. There have been cases where nurses have been assaulted because the security was just too incompetent...yet nothing has been done. I'm going to talk to my mom and see what I can do, but I think anything short of calling up one of those local TV station consumer-rights activists won't do the trick. And even if I do that, it's my word against his and I just don't generally like being caught in that sort of situation...especially when I wasn't even issued a ticket. It would be very easy for the security guard to just say "I wasn't writing him a ticket, just the car beside him" or something to that extent.

On a side note, these private ticketing agencies are a crock. I think they are lining the pockets of the municipal governments to stay in business. I've heard stories of people going to a plaza, parking there, shopping, then going across the street to another store but leaving their car in that other plaza's parking space only to be ticketed and have their car towed.

-GL

 

[DaBoneHead]

About traffic ticketing...

Most states are going to a 'reciprocating' arrangement. For instance, I was informed recently that Florida and Pennsylvania are reciprocating their ticket offenses now. Therefore, if you live in Florida but are driving through PA and you get a ticket, if you say 'screw em, i'm not coming back for a long time', then when you go to renew your drivers license in Florida, it can be refused until you pay your fine. I believe (though am not certain) that most states are working towards that arrangement too, so state lines will only give you so much protection. On the bright side, there is a statute of limitations on most of the minor traffic stuff.

I got a ticket about 9 years ago in PA, and I never paid it. I had enquired about it just out of curiousity, and it was more or less explained to me in that way. For me, They said the reciprocating arrangement wasn't in place, so I was fine. Who says procrastination doesn't get you anywhere