The car boot!

[dude]

Anyone ever got their car booted? I haven't but it happened yesterday to someone elses'.

Anyways, This car I've never seen somehow got booted in front of my garage door. I can't get the damn car out now. Call tow truck company, they won't remove it, they gotta come with a person to remove the boot. SH|T!

Later that night, they remove the boot. The tow truck was also there waiting. So they SCREW the boot off after applying a tool or key to unlock it. Tow truck comes in sideways to get the car out, cuz my van was parked next to it, so I watched them. They put the "fork" under the car and the two truck lifts it up and goes forward. The "fork" slips off, and the car is dropped. So tow truck backs up and puts it on again. Goes forward and drops it again, bouncing up and down fro falling. Finally got it out on the 3rd try.

Moral of this novel? When they tow your car, it gets treated like crap. So if you have a nice shiny car, be extra careful. They will beat it up. :|

 

[cxim]

To mix boots & politics...

The mayor of Tampa Fl had his car booted last week, when he illegally parked in a pay parking lot. He is a democrat BTW. He ignored 4 or 5 huge signs.

He is now trying to change the Tampa ordinance about booting & towing & wants larger signs with 6" letters.

Methinks he was educated in Palm Beach.

 

[Wangel]

There are two alternative to fighting the boot.

1) Hack saw (don't cut through the lock as it is hardened), cut through the arm. Or, for faster service, use an air cutting disc attached to your cordless drill or air cut-off tool.

2) Take some epoxy and force it into the lock. When you paid your fine, and they come to unlock you, they won't be able to get the lock off. At this point, they become liable and responsible for your delays or damages as there is now no reason to have your car booted. Let them rip apart their own boot and then pay you for your delay.

Once a boot is attached to your car, it becomes questionable as to whose property this is, and whether or not you have the right to remove it. I've seen once case where a boot was attached and the driver didn't see it, started to drive off, seriously damaging his car. The boot people had to pay for the damage. It's not reasonable that a driver needs to check all his tires before he drives off. Many boot companies will now put a sticker on the drivers door glass to inform the driver that their car has been booted.

IMO - nobody has a right to attach something to my car to disable it. Likewise, I think the whole concept of booting a car that was parked illegal or in the wrong place causes more of a problem. It normally takes hours to find the boot patrol to have the thing taken off. So now, you have parked illegal for many more hours.

 

[perry]

There was an incident here in Atlanta a few months back where an entrie grocery store's parking lot was booted because everyone was out at the bars down the street. I didn't see it, but supposedly there was a bunch of boot removal guys there taking $75 from each person as they walked up to their car. Talk about a rip off.

You can actually buy boots.. NorthernTool.com sells them for around $300. I think it would be funny to go to the place that takes care of the boots and boot every single one of their personal vehicles. Don't leave any sort of notice, just let them figure out that they don't have the key. Ought to really p*ss them off after about 30 minutes of trying all their keys then having to cut off the boots. Of course, this would be an expensive undertaking, but it would still be funny if you could watch from a short distance.

 

[ratkil]

<<everyone was out at the bars down the street.>>
<<bunch of boot removal guys there taking $75 from each person as they walked up to their car.>>
hmmmmmm, wonder if they did that with the usual large group of drunken people that all come out at once at closing time. Large group of unruly drunken people, oh yeah, let's tick them off..

 

[Soybomb]

Those boots scare me a little! Do like Homer did though and just drive with it on I do think that it should be legal to attach something like that to my vehicle!

 

[perry]

ratkil, yea, it don't make much sense. If the cops were smart, they woulda setup a DUI checkpoint at the exit of the parking lot.. Let's screw the drunk folks TWICE!