Perhaps he couldn’t take it anymore.
The quadrupled meter rates, having to the feed the meters until 9 every night, seven days a week, no free Sundays anymore, and the increased parking enforcement–perhaps it was all too much for him.
Maybe he was broke and needed some change for the bus. Maybe he just got one too many parking tickets. Or maybe he really loathed and despised that particular parking meter.
Whatever it was that drove this man to take a standard sized concrete cinder block, and repeatedly slam the meter head for ten minutes, we may never know.
The casually dressed young man in his late twenties, walked up to the parking meter, located in the 3300 block of N. Lincoln. Ave. around 1:30 Saturday afternoon and began assaulting the meter with the concrete block.
Wham! Wham! Wham! Shocked and puzzled onlookers walked and drove by while he repeatedly pummeled the crap out of the meter head and pole.
“Did the meter eat your quarter?” one bystander asked while walking by.
With a brief shake of his head, the clearly agitated man continued his punishment of the meter. Pieces of concrete continued to crack, break and chip off the main cinder block, eventually breaking it into two main pieces.
The assailant, sweating from the exertion in the relatively mild temperatures, stripped off his shirt and then redoubled his attack on the meter, using the larger of the two pieces.
Finally, after about ten minutes of this attack, a Chicago police car, with siren blaring and lights flashing raced up to the scene of the incident. Despite the approaching siren, the man continued for a few moments, but then quickly dropped his weapon and ran around the corner north, down Marshfield Ave. and into the Lakeview YMCA located at 3333 N. Marshfield.
Four squad cars descended on the scene and pursued the alleged meter beater into the YMCA.
The man, apparently a resident at the YMCA, after a brief scuffle with police, and now sporting bruises and marks on his shirtless torso, was removed yelling from the YMCA, and into an awaiting police wagon.
“Something was definitely wrong with him,” layed off CTA worker and YMCA resident Joe said about the alleged assailant’s psychological state. “I’m a newer resident and keep to myself so I don’t really know him.”
Lakeview YMCA Executive Director Brian Page and Residence Director John Carolan, had no comment about the incident.
According to Chicago municipal law, it is illegal to damage a city parking meter.
9-80-150 Parking meters – Damage prohibited – Interference with intent to park without paying or obtain coins unlawful.
(a) It shall be unlawful for any person to deface, injure, tamper with, open or wilfully break, destroy or impair the usefulness of any parking meter. Every person convicted of a violation of this subsection shall be punished by a fine of $250.00.
Dept. of Revenue spokesman Ed Walsh says the city is not shy about prosecuting persons who damage parking meters.
“It is considered to be serious,” says Walsh. “We’d probably view this (incident) as attempted vandalism. When it is out and out vandalism, it doesn’t occur very often and most incidents involve someone sticking something in the meter slot.”
The most incredible detail of the story is, despite ten minutes of constant battering with a 30 lb. rock, the parking meter did not break and continues to function normally at 15 minutes per quarter.
Posted in 
what a great story of determination. both on the man and on the meter’s part. Lesson learned: the meter will not bend. NEVER.
I also like how last photo of the man shows scraps on his back that were not there in the beginning photos. That meter puts up a hard fight!
He could have taken a tiny tube of gel super glue and done every meter on the street in two shakes, or a caulk gun with a fine tip. I’m not suggesting anything illegal; this is something he could have done but:
You people in Chicago need to organize around this issue; this is an outrage. Remember Jane Byrne, who was brought down by a snow storm. This is much worse than not getting the streets plowed.
It was Bilandic who was brought down by the snowstorm and replaced by Jane Byrne.
Wow. After 10 minutes of beating with a concrete block, there were only scratches on the meter. Also, that YMCA is one of the only the few YMCA’s left that have residential facilities.
Anybody else thinking Cool Hand Luke?
i think it was bilandic that was brought down by a snow storm, but i could be wrong.
[[The most incredible detail of the story is, despite ten minutes of constant battering with a 30 lb. rock, the parking meter did not break and continues to function normally at 15 minutes per quarter.]]
memo to self: get a bigger rock.
This is why I never go anywhere that I have to pay to park. The city has enough money. Even when I come on vacation I do not stay anywhere that I must pay to park. Keep up the good work guy. Good Luck to you,and may God Bless.
You guys have it all wrong. The bruises and marks came free of charge from Chicago’s Finest!
A hacksaw to the pole would of been more effective.
I have a few words for all of you giving kudos to this moron. What if it was your car windows that he was taking the brick to, or your house windows. This is not a joke. That guy could have hurt someone and someone badly. For everyone that thinks it is funny and thinks that the company that has this deal deserves all this back lash you are all wrong. This company gave your city 1.15 Billion dollars. In any case you like this or not, the company paid high dollar for it. Especially since with the economy we are dealing with, the city got a great deal. And for the jokers that thinks its funny to sabotage the meters, I would like to see each and every one of you get caught and go to jail like that guy from this article.
I am a taxpayer, car owner, home owner, and a business man, and I feel Chicago needs to grow up and deal with the changing world. IF you do not like the cost of the parking meters, either stay home or sell your car. There are plenty of us that has no issue with paying the meters.
Also, I side note to each and everyone of you. Have you been in a parking garage lately, to see there parking rates. I pulled in a parking garage off Monroe and for 20 MINUTES. It was $8.00 dollars your getting 2 hrs for $2.00 in any area other than downtown and if your parking at a meter downtown your getting 2hrs for $7.00 dollars. People wake up and do your homework and stop believing what your newspapers and your hearing on the block. Parking at the meters isn’t all that bad. Wake up CHICAGO.
Beleive you me. If I see anyone defacing or trying to sabotage any parking meters, as a citizen of CHICAGO I will call the police and I will be a witness for the city and the company that purchased the meters.
GROW UP PEOPLE and face the music…… It it totally moronic to give support to a criminal. Unless you are a criminal yourself… And apparently from reading some of the posting, everyone on here is a criminal… Well watch out for me, if I see you, I will CALL THE POLICE.. WIth a camera in hand.
What we have here is a failure to communicate!
Now what we got here is Failure to Communicate
Next time:
Atlas Tools 16 lb. Sledge Hammer with Fiberglass Handle
Model 11316
$43.97/Each
Cool Hand Luke..
I very much sympathize with this guy. I put quarters in one of the newly owned meters, and the time did not change for MUCH of MY change. I deposited in excess of a dollar more than I should have. And, I too see a tremendous amounts of available metered spaces now.
I also visited a small strip center recently, parked in THEIR lot, and there were parking meters in the private parking lot.
Now… I would rather spend an hour looking for a parking space on a side street than support these new “robber barrens.”
Talk about bonuses for the rich!!!
I used to be an ardent supporter of Daley… now I am much less of one; and in a county with the highest sales tax in the country.
$$$… bottom line.
Arrrrggghhh
jami
Daley is done. this is his ’snow storm’. good bye richy, it was fun knowing you but you are too expensive for me. The meter deal was the last straw. Come on! I need a roll a quarters a day if I park at a meter. But that is VERY rare these days as there are plenty of lots and free spaces around.
Dear Joe Wagner and everyone else.
I honestly don’t know if this person was making any kind of political statement. I’m not sure if it’s fair to call him a moron as I think he may have been suffering some mental breakdown or episode. He didn’t seem to be in a stable state of mind and is perhaps mentally ill.
Then again, I don’t and probably won’t ever know for sure.
However, I think it’s easy to understand why people view his aggression towards the parking meter with glee. Chicagoans are frustrated. Sales taxes are the highest in the nation, the city is looking for any scheme possible to put money in their pockets to fill a budget deficit that exists solely because of mismanagement and lack of foresight by the administration, and the economy is kicking many of us in the ass.
When you see the city sell off a revenue generating asset at bargain basement prices and then get parking rates quadrupled, people are bound to get upset.
As a business person Joe, I can’t see how you can think these recent policies set forth by the Daley Administration does anything but HURT a businesses chances to survive in this down economy. The increased meter rates ARE having an effect. I can see it by the less cars parked on the streets. Less cars, less customers, less revenue, more businesses failing.
So, while I personally don’t endorse, and this website doesn’t advocate violence or damaging property, I understand and sympathize with the emotions that may drive people to applaud this type of behavior.
Thanks to all of you for your comments, pro, con, whatever–it’s an open forum here.
That guy’s back took more of a beating than that meter did.
it would have been much easier if he had run it over with a pickup truck, like my buddy did years ago. quarters everywhere!
I bet you cant eat as many boiled eggs as I did.
We need a Parking Meter “Tea Party”? Maybe for one whole week we can see how many meter’s can be put out of service.
For Joe Wagner “Who works for Chicago Parking…”, Mayor Daley sealed this deal not the people. The People should stand united against this. Pretty soon Daley and Joe Wagner will have meters and cameras installed in your bedroom, and charge you every time you have sex.
I like the crazy glue idea! Maybe spray paint the displays black on both sides, so they can’t be read.
As long as we’re idly ruminating on hypothetical ways that unscrupulous criminals could destroy parking meters, I would think that a little Great Stuff expanding insulating foam shot into the slot and keyhole would probably do the most damage. That stuff expands to 100 times its size and cures rock hard, gluing everything it touches together.
Good thing we’re only talking hypothetically, as one can of that stuff could probably permanently destroy block after block of meters as fast as you could run from one to another!
Crazy glue is crazy!! what about the red light cams?
laser it?
Joe Wagner, Of course you are right. People are frustrated. I just don’t come into the city anymore and I suspect many others feel the same way. Unfortunately, local businesses will suffer.
Yes, the city got over a billion dollars on the deal. And they’ll spend it in a flash. Then what happens to the future stream of revenue the city should be collecting? All this outsourcing is a poor way to run the city and it is eliminating future sources of revenue for present spending. It’s time to outsource local government. Just think what a private company could do with the city and county.
Somewhat reminiscent of the start of Cool Hand Luke, as Paul Newman’s Luke trashes a parking meter…
[...] Chicago nut goes crazy and assaults a parking meter for 10 minutes with a concrete block before getting arrested. The man’s limited wardrobe suggests he has mental issues. [...]
I consider what is apparently happening now — an effective spontaneous boycott — to be infinitely more effective than vandalism as an expression of dissatisfaction with the situation.
The point having been made that meters would be easy to destroy, I’m opposed to anyone actually doing it. Why ruin a good boycott by giving the opposition a distraction like that?
Do not park at meters.
I wouldnt do it myself and I certainly wouldnt encourage in any way anybody else doing it, however I have always considered gorilla glue to be the most effective way to fill any holes that need filling. Gorilla glue dries rock hard and also expands to 4 or 5 times its original volume Gorilla glue is relatively inexpensive and easy to use in squeeze containers. I am surprised that more people arent attacking the larger ticket dispensing machines not that I would ever suggest that someone do such a thing that is of course illegal. You take out a ticket dispensing machine and you take out a whole block.
I think the voters in Chicago, Cook County and our great state of Illinois can only blame themselves. Every election they are herded like cattle to the slaughter by the local Democratic party ward captain/herdsmen, and look at the result. When men were still men and not bromance inspired neuters it would be considered the patriotic duty of some of the more inspired and civic minded of such individuals to fight back against this insidious form of harassment by taxation and fee. I’m not suggesting of course anyone do anything illegal. To call this form of civil disobedience the result of frustration is quite ridiculous this is plainly the result of anger. Personally I have found shooting off a quick email to my state rep to be the most effective way to initiate real political change.
Enough already! Daley needs to be told to East River whitefish!
WE, the people, need to start fighting back! Here are some ideas to fight back:
http://www.homedepot.ca/wcsstore/HomeDepotCanada/images/catalog/488a2cbc-5478-4cdf-8221-9b4415f2892a_4.jpg
A good shot of expanding foam should feed the meter’s coin slot nicely. Don’t get caught… Epoxy putties and VHB sided foam tapes show additional promise for field expedient mayhem and merriment.
Small computer printed stickers on permanent adhesive telling short shanks da’ mayor how deeply he can stick his meter up his poop chute can be applied. Alternate stickers could also advertise tax protest tea parties, good bars and pizza places as well as general thoughts about our so-called ‘leaders’.
One last suggestion…when you see a private meter reader writing tell them, quietly, that they are scum for robbing their fellow citizens, even better snap their faces with your cell phone cameras so they get paranoid. The photo itself is worthless and you can delete it once you are around the corner. But they’ll go nuts trying to figure out why you want their pictures. And despite what they’ll say the photo is totally legal for you to task:
http://www.krages.com/ThePhotographersRight.pdf
We surround them!
They work for us!
The 912 Project!
This one is for Joe Wagner:
Like paying taxes Joe? Like following the rules Joe? This is where you become the problem. I understand what you are saying, but he wasn’t attacking someones car window, he wasn’t attacking a business storefront or just a random passerby, there is a REASON he attacked the meter. And honestly there needs to be more people like him, berate me what have you.
But as the son of parents who works too damn hard for too little money, as a college student who will more than likely have quite a bit of Debt in the next year to pay off. I cannot wait to leave Cook County, Chicago, Illinois and go elsewhere.
We are far to heavily taxed, and forced to go along with these taxes, 10% on electronics, over night Cigarettes rose $.75 and next its a $1. We privatize the Sky Way, privatize the meters, and now we have a UK Insurance Holding Company changing the name of the Sears Tower. So keep standing pride and true with your Chicago, because the Chicago I knew and cared about is going right out the window.
Someone said it, I’ll agree with it, its time for those of us who no longer agree with the way we are being treated to rise up and stand up for the injustices and unfair taxes forced upon us because of other peoples wrong doings or investments. It is time for a revolution of the working class to show them we will no longer stand for this treatment.
Multiple choice:
The City of Chicago is more likely to:
(A) clear streets of snow for the safety of its citizens and visitors
(B) reinforce parking meters to withstand atomic bombs
So now it’s profit over safety?
Hey everyone!
Any of you who are actively involved in acts of let’s say,”civil disobedience,” against Chicago parking meters, I would be very interested in speaking to you via e-mail or phone for a news story I am working on.
I absolutely will respect your anonymity. How can a guy with a stupid name like The Parking Ticket Geek NOT respect anonymity?
I’m trying to determine if some of the comments here are just people expressing their First Amendment rights or are actually “takin’ it to the man” in a real and concrete way.
You can e-mail me at: info@theexpiredmeter.com
BTW: Thanks to everyone for all your thoughts and comments.
Thanks everyone!
The Geek
Joe Wagner said:
“For everyone that thinks it is funny and thinks that the company that has this deal deserves all this back lash you are all wrong. This company gave your city 1.15 Billion dollars. In any case you like this or not, the company paid high dollar for it. Especially since with the economy we are dealing with, the city got a great deal.”
By many estimates the city got screwed on the deal. And LAZ did not GIVE the city anything you idiot. They LEASED the meters for 75 years. Yes, long after you are dead LAZ will still own the rights to collect from the meters. The aldermen were given 3 days to review the proposal. Why the rush for 75 years? Obviously because Hizzoner didn’t want them to have time to figure out how badly Chicagoans were getting screwed.
“I am a taxpayer, car owner, home owner, and a business man, and I feel Chicago needs to grow up and deal with the changing world. IF you do not like the cost of the parking meters, either stay home or sell your car. There are plenty of us that has no issue with paying the meters.”
There are plenty more that do have an issue with the city screwing its residents at every turn. As a businessperson you should understand that people who stay home don’t spend money at your business. I imagine the business you are in is in some way affiliated with the BS.
“I pulled in a parking garage off Monroe and for 20 MINUTES. It was $8.00 dollars your getting 2 hrs for $2.00 in any area other than downtown and if your parking at a meter downtown your getting 2hrs for $7.00 dollars. People wake up and do your homework and stop believing what your newspapers and your hearing on the block. Parking at the meters isn’t all that bad. Wake up CHICAGO.”
You wake up Joe. You get a roof over your head for the added money spent on garage parking (which also was increased by Hizzoner). Overnight many meters quadrupled in price for the same service but that was never factored in to the contract with LAZ. Joe. JOE! WAKE UP! or is it just the drugs you’re obviously on?
“Beleive you me. If I see anyone defacing or trying to sabotage any parking meters, as a citizen of CHICAGO I will call the police and I will be a witness for the city and the company that purchased the meters.
GROW UP PEOPLE and face the music…… It it totally moronic to give support to a criminal. Unless you are a criminal yourself… And apparently from reading some of the posting, everyone on here is a criminal… Well watch out for me, if I see you, I will CALL THE POLICE.. WIth a camera in hand.”
Great. Red light cameras aren’t enough. Now we have to worry about roving Joe cameras. I’ll be you’re already on the payroll and have a deal negotiated for ratting people out ala the Gestapo.
Joe Wagner = Dork!
The streets are PUBLIC property! You don’t lease them. That why we have a city, to take care of these things… With the same logic, why not lease the city’s property taxes to private company and Joe can see this taxes quadruple. Joe, if you think the guy with the rock is a criminal and will volunteer to be a witness against him in court, I thinks the guy is courageous (sure, with a dash of craziness) for having the balls to act on what most of us wish we could… ohh and I would have helped post his bond money.
I can understand the “Meter Beaters” frustration with amount of taxes he is paying for parking his car. All though I do not agree with his way of dealing with the situation and waisting the time of Chicago’s finest. I think a better solution would have been to not pay the meter and add a comment to this blog on why you should not pay the meter.
I am happy to see that the majority of you all realize that our city in the last 20 years under the reign of King Daley has improved moderately but at a huge price tag to the tax payer. Local Business used to thrive from the benefits from City Hall contracts but all those contracts are now for only those with political clout. Now business is taxed to so high that they have no choice but to charge more to make up for cost. I barley shop in the county anymore since I can not afford it. Property tax is high and now I have to pay more to the State!
Folks we have to take it back! This is what the Meter Beater is trying to fight against in vain, his Liberty! Look at him, he is no different then you and me. His anger is just way ahead of us. He is over taxed and sees little effort from city hall in basic services to justify the price he pays for that meter.
By the way do any of you not have a large pot hole within 2 blocks of your house.
Now the police are told they are not worthy of raise? Wow with Jody’s large salary there must not be enough for everyone else. Folks the problem is not the Policemen, Garbage men, Teachers, the Parks, or Libraries, these people are all taking unpaid days off to balance the city budget. The problem is the Politicians and Administrators and there lager salaries!
Next time you see the Meter Beater send him to city hall where they need a good beating!
and next week …….. the street cleaning SCAM begins! The City hasn’t posted the 2009 schedule for street cleaning YET — and the season starts in only a few days. But, even if look at their ALLEGED schedule for 2008, it’s wrong. I have proof it’s wrong. I received a ticket in November when I was out of town. My area was NOT scheduled to be swept that week. STREET CLEANING TICKETS! SCAM!!!!!!!!!
Daley is a nice man doing his best for the people that voted for him, in the years to come he will do better and make up for some of you that are mad angry at him, look all the gardens he built in the middle of the roads everywhere,now he is paving the bad parts of chicago, and very soon he will move all the poor and unemployed out of the city and all will look pretty for us that are still employed.
I give credit to Mr Daley for having all the business that pollute the city move to Mexico, and overseas.
Now I carry crazy glue on the car, if meter do me wrong I use it ,it will be too much time wasted to get a few quartes back and it cost to call. so i make it cost them more.
[...] all better listen. The backlash is on. Check out the Meter Beater. ▶ Comment /* 0) { jQuery(‘#comments’).show(”, change_location()); [...]
He was probably a Whole Foods employee. They sit and smoke near the corner. BTW, that location is near Revenue Control. Revenue Control used to go up and down those streets every morning and afternoon. 25 cents was a whole lot cheaper than a $50 ticket.
Is that his Ford Mustang in the background? If anyone can make out the plates, you can look them up at the Secretary of State’s website.
I wish more people would take out these meters and make it unprofitable for the comapny running them. We can not stand there and do nothing
i am with you my brother way to be
people that park there most likely deserve a ticket anyway
gorilla glue! it’s basically a hybrid super glue and expanding foam!