Cars Towed To Help Prevent Underarm Odor
There are many reason why cars are towed in the city.
Perhaps the vehicle is deemed abandoned, or broken down, or involved in an accident, or is blocking traffic. Perhaps it’s parked in a handicapped spot, or it’s rush hour parking. Maybe the vehicle was left booted over 24 hours.
But I’ve never heard of cars being towed to help sell deodorant.
And essentially, that’s what happened Monday evening up at the Loyola Park parking lot, when a film production crew needed that particular location to shoot a TV commercial for Secret antiperspirant.
According to several residents who live, drive and park in that lakefront neighborhood, a city worker started posting “No Parking – Tow Zone” signs on approximately 30 parking spots within the park district controlled lot at around 6 PM with an effective time of 9 PM that same evening.
This effectively gave motorists with vehicles parked in the lot, a whole three hours to move their cars. More than likely, because this lot is used by area residents to park overnight, many drivers had no idea they had to move their vehicles.
Hence, approximately 20 cars or more, according to Betsy Vandercook, Chief of Staff for 49th Ward Alderman Joe Moore, were towed to a city auto pound. Vandercook also said Moore’s office was taken by surprise and not warned of the commercial shoot or the tow order either.
Of course, a three hour warning, starting at 6 PM, does not pass the smell test. Because, normally, signs are supposed to be posted a minimum of 24 hours in advance of an event, in order to give drivers enough notice to relocate their vehicles–not just three hours.
Vehicle owners who were towed to a city auto pound, are treated to paying a minimum $160 ransom to get their precious car back and most likely a ticket to fight or pay as well.
But, no sweat! The good news is that Ald. Moore and his hard working staff have stepped up to try to correct the problem. In fact, Moore and staff come out smelling sweet, by working to get each car owner reimbursed for their towing fees.
If your vehicle was towed that evening from the Loyola Park lot, contact the Ald. Moore’s office at 773-338-5796 or ward49@cityofchicago.org.
My guess, a lot of people up in the 49th Ward are going to switch to Degree.
If you ever do get towed, check out the Parking Ticket Geek’s Ultimate Internet Reference Guide To Getting Towed By The City Of Chicago.
This may be an extreme case, but I think that short-notice tow & no parking notices have become just another way to juice the city for more revenue.
I’ve noticed that this year, the posting of street cleaning signs has gone from 24-48 hours before to the afternoon before the first side of the street gets cleaned. So, for example, they’ll post the no parking for Wed-Thurs street cleaning late on Tuesday afternoon.
This means that not only is my street less likely to get effectively cleaned, but the city is raking in 3-4 $50 street cleaning tickets per block. That’s got to be adding up.
[...] seems the city had not given drivers adequate notice that a film crew was shooting a TV commercial for Secret deodorant that evening. Subsequently, 27 drivers had their vehicles towed from the [...]