Love You, Hate You
Every time I start really feeling like I miss Chicago, I am reminded of a reason why I was ready to leave.
In Chicago, parking meters don't just expire. They can suddenly appear out of nowhere, like people who have been dead for years showing up at the polls on Election Day.
That's the only reason--illogical and unfair as it is--that Chicago police would have slapped drivers with parking tickets for failing to feed meters when there were no meters to be fed when the cars were parked.
Motorists who parked downtown on a stretch of Illinois Street last week fell unsuspectingly into a parking-ticket trap. It is a trick Getting Around had not seen before, but one that we are happy to expose and terminate.
Among the drivers scammed was Chicago attorney Vince Tessitore, who at first felt lucky on Tuesday night to find a legal, meterless space to park his Jeep Cherokee on the north side of Illinois just west of LaSalle Street. But when a friend went to the spot to retrieve Tessitore's car about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, a parking meter had been installed where the day before there was no meter.
And a parking ticket was left on the windshield.The sneaky police officer (Badge No. 30249) who wrote the parking ticket post-dated the citation as having been issued at 12:39 p.m. Thursday--more than 15 hours after the ticket was placed on the car.
"It really angers me," said Tessitore, 33, who called Getting Around. "The city is strict enough in its parking restrictions already. Chicago gets plenty of revenue ticketing people by legal means without having to be deceptive."
It's not like they just made a mistake on one ticket. It was intentional. I am kind of surprised by the stupidity of it."
In Chicago, parking meters don't just expire. They can suddenly appear out of nowhere, like people who have been dead for years showing up at the polls on Election Day.
That's the only reason--illogical and unfair as it is--that Chicago police would have slapped drivers with parking tickets for failing to feed meters when there were no meters to be fed when the cars were parked.
Motorists who parked downtown on a stretch of Illinois Street last week fell unsuspectingly into a parking-ticket trap. It is a trick Getting Around had not seen before, but one that we are happy to expose and terminate.
Among the drivers scammed was Chicago attorney Vince Tessitore, who at first felt lucky on Tuesday night to find a legal, meterless space to park his Jeep Cherokee on the north side of Illinois just west of LaSalle Street. But when a friend went to the spot to retrieve Tessitore's car about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, a parking meter had been installed where the day before there was no meter.
And a parking ticket was left on the windshield.The sneaky police officer (Badge No. 30249) who wrote the parking ticket post-dated the citation as having been issued at 12:39 p.m. Thursday--more than 15 hours after the ticket was placed on the car.
"It really angers me," said Tessitore, 33, who called Getting Around. "The city is strict enough in its parking restrictions already. Chicago gets plenty of revenue ticketing people by legal means without having to be deceptive."
It's not like they just made a mistake on one ticket. It was intentional. I am kind of surprised by the stupidity of it."
posted by Mike C | 6:42 AM
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