When The Un-Expired Meter Gets Ticketed
What happens when you get an expired meter ticket, even though you still have time on your meter receipt?
Well, of course you should contest it.
But these days, you tweet a photo of this travesty of justice first.
Marcy Capron was in this situation the other day and tweeted the photo and her disgust saying via her Twitter account, “Excuse me police person, but my sticker wasn’t expired yet! Idiot…”
Hopefully Ms. Capron will see this situation through and fight her ticket.
Hat tip to Logan Square resident and urban planner (and friend of this website) Lynn Stevens, who tweets about both subjects on her @peoplingplaces Twitter account.
The evidence is pretty damning EXCEPT for one minor detail. Was this receipt displayed on the dash at the time when the ticket was issued? I can’t help but notice that the receipt is covering up the comments. Would love to see the photo taken by the ticket writer.
she should also realize that this wasn’t written by a cop
The meter receipt may not be expired, but it looks like her license plate tags are – expired in May. I wonder if the ticket writer just punched in the wrong violation code.
I haven’t parked a motorcycle at a paybox but I have to agree with Rinzler’s question. Was that receipt displayed, because it looks to me like it’s still firmly attached to it’s sticker backing. So it either wasn’t displayed, or the meter reader can’t tell the difference between in time and out time.
Ok…first..
Rinzler….Thank you. That is the Kindest comment anyone could make. And it is true…Without being able to view the Comments…There is no way of knowing why that expired meter ticket was issued. It could have not been on the Dash face up…It might have slid into the area between the windshield and dash and that PEA might not have been able to read it.
Without that ladies License Plate number there is no way for me to look up the ticket on the Revenue Sight though and view the photos and comments.
Also…Lets say for instance, there were 3 receipts on the dash….for the same day and meter #….if the total time purchased is more than 2 hours (the max allowed parking time limit for that per hour rate on that street) you can be ticketed for Overstaying the Box time limit. And a Sharp PEA will catch that.
And GLG…actually….funnily..the City reclassified the PEA’s job title in the last contract re-negotiation….the city now considers the PEA’s to be Public Safety Officers….so Officer is a title my PEA’s can use.
I find it amazing that the first responses are jumping to the defense of the ticket writer. The presumption appears to be that they
“can do no wrong” despite the strong evidence that, in fact, they make numerous errors. It makes NO sense that someone would purchase a parking meter strip and then not display it in the window. The time in front and behind of this meter strip purchase and the time of the ticket means that it was purchased well before the ticket was issued. As for the “box limit”, what’s the exact time limit and distance. Certainly under the old system I could legally get in the car and move it to another meter and start the “clock” over again. With the ubiquitous meter strips, what if I park first in Neighborhood X, then Neighborhood Y, then Neighborhood Z. All have two hour limits and all are at the “bottom” price tier. Would I get a ticket in neighborhood Z if I left the stickers from X and Y in the window? What if, and this happened to me, I had an appointment. I thought it would take 15 minutes. At 12 minutes, when it was clear that it was going to take more than 15 minutes, I went out and got another meter strip for about 15 more minutes. This process repeated 4 more times (due to bad service at the place I was visiting.) I was in a hurry to get back in so I just threw each meter strip in the window. My total meter time was well under the limit. Was I at risk at getting a ticket from a Pea?
Sooooooooo, I got a ticket for “no sticker displayed” or whatever it’s called, on my motorcycle. The ticket writer even had a photograph of my motorcycle that showed, yep, no sticker on it.
Thing was, not only did I have the sticker on my mcy, it was unexpired *and* it was properly displayed. The photograph the writer took was cropped so that the properly displayed sticker was not in the picture.
Hey, good thing I don’t trust these bastages and not only had a cell phone picture of my sticker properly displayed, but I had three – one close up with the code numbers, one a few feet back showing the sticker properly on the bike, and one from about 20 feet away showing the bike was properly parked.
So for all you folks who think the ticket writers “just make mistakes” wake up – they’re doing this on purpose for whatever their reasons are.
If you look up the ticket # on Dept of Rev in ‘pay ticket’ you can get the license plate to look up the photos the ticketer took. Unfortunately it’s just the plates. Interestingly, though – the plates are expired by a couple weeks. Any chance it was supposed to be an expired-plates ticket and the ticketer picked the wrong option? Or is that a whole different ticketing agency.
Lil Ridge has a point as well
If you type “Exp” into the autocite….Expired Plates or Temp Registration” pops up first…
But if you type out “Expi” The Meter Violations show up first.
That type of accident can happen….because we don’t actually try to write the wrong ticket in My department.
And KH makes a good point…..If the photos are only of the Plates and the plates are actually expired…there you go…
Accidental entry of wrong violation code and the bimbo got lucky.
I would love to work with Michaelnet, he is flawless at work. Never makes a single mistake…he is perfect.
Funny how some people assume every mistake is a conspirecy.
A few answers…
“box limit” is the max time limit you are allowed to park in a parking space. It is the maximum time the meter allows for paid parking. That is, if the meter says 2 hours, you could pay for 30 minutes of parking, every 30 minutes for 2 hours. If you paid for a fifth 30 min, for a total of 2 1/2 hours, you could get a ticket. (There is specific language about having to drive your car a certain distance, before parking in the same spot for additional time, but I’m too lazy to look that up)
If you pay for 2 hours of parking in neighborhood X, and stay for only 30 minutes, then drive to neighborhood Y, which has the same or lower parking rate, you can use the initial parking receipt for the balance of time remaining from the initial purchase (90 minutes less travel time, in this example). If neighborhood Y has a higher parking rate, you must pay for new parking.
KG…I think the simplest explanation is that the Revenue person intended to pick expired plate and hit expired meter for this one.
this surely looks like an accident if the person did not receive an expired plate ticket. One of the reasons is that the citation issued does not have a meter number located next to the address, which is required. Ticket writers are human. the person who submitted this photo should be lucky if they did not receive a ticket for expired plates
Wrong violation code is no excuse – this bullshit ticket should be dismissed.
Now Peter….
No one here, is suggesting she have to pay this ticket.
Because you are 100% correct…wrong code is wrong code and oh darn…I need to teach that writer to slow down and read.
And she got lucky….for all available info on that ticket that is visible…it should have been for Expired Plates and not Expired Meter.
It’s a shame that Ticket writers are Human and make honest errors…but there you go pal. Its not like we are the CPD and Air mail bogus citations.
Thanks, Zero.
Seeing as how there’s only one place on a motorcycle for a sticker to go – on the headlight (which is why they make the reverse side of the stickers sticky, you know); and seeing as how my headlight is a whole 8 inches across, and seeing as how the sticker was stuck on the headlight when I went in for my taco, and seeing as how it was stuck on the headlight when I came out for my taco, and seeing as how the ticket writer had only one, extremely simple task to perform that day related to my motorcycle – look at my motorcycle headlight to see if there was a valid sticker on it …
but yeah, you’re right. Probably just a mistake.