CHICAGO - It sounds like the meter maid's version of a speed trap: A ticket for parking at a meter that was installed after you park your car.
But that's what happened in Chicago last week, where a handful of motorists returned to their vehicles and found parking meters - and tickets - that weren't there when they parked.
According to a spokeswoman for the city's revenue department it was all just an innocent mistake. The way Efrat Dallal explains it, the vehicles were parked on a stretch of roadway where the meters were temporarily removed during street construction. Then, she said, the meters were put back and the vehicles parked in front of them were ticketed.
But some motorists wondered if that was the case after at least one of the tickets was apparently postdated several hours after it was placed on a car.
"It really angers me," said Vince Tessitore, an attorney who found what for drivers is the equivalent of money on the sidewalk: a vacant and cost-free parking space.
http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/breaking_news/11942442.htm
But that's what happened in Chicago last week, where a handful of motorists returned to their vehicles and found parking meters - and tickets - that weren't there when they parked.
According to a spokeswoman for the city's revenue department it was all just an innocent mistake. The way Efrat Dallal explains it, the vehicles were parked on a stretch of roadway where the meters were temporarily removed during street construction. Then, she said, the meters were put back and the vehicles parked in front of them were ticketed.
But some motorists wondered if that was the case after at least one of the tickets was apparently postdated several hours after it was placed on a car.
"It really angers me," said Vince Tessitore, an attorney who found what for drivers is the equivalent of money on the sidewalk: a vacant and cost-free parking space.
http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/breaking_news/11942442.htm
