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Forgers Check in, They Don't Check Out.
They Get Towed Out
Got a call from the maintenance man at the hotel down town (national chain hotel by the way) for removal of an illegally parked car. This isn't that rare, they have the only paved lot on their block, and all those open spaces mean people who aren't guests pull in there all the time, what with the plethora of bars and pizza joints in the area.
To differentiate those who belong from those who don't, if you ARE a guest you get a dash pass for your car so they know you're okay. Incidentally, this leads to the occasional person who we tow in and have to patiently and futilely try to explain to them that while they did have a dash pass, where they parked was OFF the hotel's property, and that's why they got towed. Funny how hotel permits don't work at the gravel driveways of private residences ACROSS THE STREET isn't it?
(Either I slept through the part of Drivers Ed that taught that, or it wasn't covered and the teacher once again underestimated the dogged inability of some people to pay attention to signs, directions, vebal warnings and anything else that isn't currently lighting them on fire.... )
Anyway, this one was a bit unique in that it was the first time the reverse had happened, someone had forged a Hotel dash pass (and not done a very good job at it) and that's why the car was leaving with me. Same shoddy workmanship that gets most of my victims caught too, scanned a real one and then printed it out on paper instead of cardstock. Resulting "pass" was too thin, and they didn't do a very good cut-out job, the sides were all wavy and not straight. Worst of all, they didn't bother to change the unique serial number so the Maintenance guy was able to check the books and discovered that "permit" was already issued all the way back in February.... whups.....
He was BEYOND steamed at this person too, and let me know in no uncertain terms that whenever the person who owned that car came in to pick it up, they wanted us to get their personal information and the phony permit back (most of them we confiscate, laugh at, and then toss in the trash) and give it all to the hotel. (Who had already written down the make/model/color/plate of the offending vehicle. )
Looks like some unfortunate soul will now, instead of getting off "easy" with only owing us for a tow, is on their way to getting a nice theft of services charge dropped on them as well.....
And one block away was the municipal parking garage.... so apparently, a criminal record is worth saving a block of travel on foot..... I'm no expert in economics but that certainly seems like a case of poor trade-off, oh well.
entitledl@bigegotinybrain.com
Got an interesting, ahem, "contesting" email the other day (and it actually said that in the subject line, "contesting charges"). I suppose this typographical tsunami was the "olive branch" this kind person was extending to us, a chance to make things right in his eyes before he engages "beast mode" and lets loose his army of Martian Tripod Heat-Ray Lawyers upon us for the transgressions we made against him.
(My comments are in italics)
At 8pm on *date redacted* I parked my car at *location redacted*. When I returned at 8:30, I found my car had been ticketed and towed. As you must know, parking regulations in the Borough state that no parking enforcement may take place after 6pm. 8pm is well past this deadline.
It states no meter enforcement after 6, the private lot rules run 24/7
Furthermore, I was parked in *location redacted* , is that NOT inside the Borough? I had to drive down *street redacted* to get there, is that not a Borough street? Was it not fair for me to assume I was legally parked?
The lot at *location redacted* is a private parking lot, as soon as you pull in, you are OFF borough property, so no, it was rater stupid of you to assume that
I also can't help but wonder if I was being singled out, as I am a University employee and have University parking stickers on my car, is your company policy to specifically target University cars?
Nope, we target illegally parked cars, like, oh, I dunno, yours? And frankly, I don't "target" anything. The military targets things, I enforce rules, slight difference
Finally, there isn't any signage at that location, there was no sign directly in front of where I parked informing me that I could not park there.
But there are 3 evenly spaced signs in that lot that say "PRIVATE PARKING-TOW AWAY ZONE- ENFORCED 24/7 Friendly Neighborhood Towing xxx-xxxx"
Wouldn't it make sense to have some kind of sign in front of a parking spot informing me I could not use it if that is the case? The signs in that lot are clearly NOT at eye-level!
The ones you just said weren't there? You are aware "eye-level" is a subjective term right? And nothing in the Borough ordinance says anything about height of private parking signs, only that they be "clearly visible" and have 1 per 25 spaces. Ironically, that lot you got towed from has only 12 spaces, so at 3 signs, it's OVERSIGNED per ordinance and you still pulled on in.
I expect a quick response to these issues, and I want the contact name and information for whoever is responsible for enforcing parking regulations within the borough so that I may inform them of these issues as well.
Your guess is as good as mine there, Sir, I have no idea who that might be, how about you call the BOROUGH and not us on that one?
Sincerely, Prof. Entitled
THE UNIVERSITY
*sigh* You know, I had a sneaking suspicion I was dealing with an entitled academic, and now that it's been confirmed, I'm not surprised.
We sent him the following reply:
Sir,
The lot is private and the signage in the lot meets all Borough parking regulations, your fines and charges stand as is.
- Friendly Neighborhood Towing
Can't wait to see if we get a response, insufferable egoists like him tend to flip out when their finely-worded theses earn nothing but an unswayed one-sentence response.
They Get Towed Out
Got a call from the maintenance man at the hotel down town (national chain hotel by the way) for removal of an illegally parked car. This isn't that rare, they have the only paved lot on their block, and all those open spaces mean people who aren't guests pull in there all the time, what with the plethora of bars and pizza joints in the area.
To differentiate those who belong from those who don't, if you ARE a guest you get a dash pass for your car so they know you're okay. Incidentally, this leads to the occasional person who we tow in and have to patiently and futilely try to explain to them that while they did have a dash pass, where they parked was OFF the hotel's property, and that's why they got towed. Funny how hotel permits don't work at the gravel driveways of private residences ACROSS THE STREET isn't it?
(Either I slept through the part of Drivers Ed that taught that, or it wasn't covered and the teacher once again underestimated the dogged inability of some people to pay attention to signs, directions, vebal warnings and anything else that isn't currently lighting them on fire.... )Anyway, this one was a bit unique in that it was the first time the reverse had happened, someone had forged a Hotel dash pass (and not done a very good job at it) and that's why the car was leaving with me. Same shoddy workmanship that gets most of my victims caught too, scanned a real one and then printed it out on paper instead of cardstock. Resulting "pass" was too thin, and they didn't do a very good cut-out job, the sides were all wavy and not straight. Worst of all, they didn't bother to change the unique serial number so the Maintenance guy was able to check the books and discovered that "permit" was already issued all the way back in February.... whups.....
He was BEYOND steamed at this person too, and let me know in no uncertain terms that whenever the person who owned that car came in to pick it up, they wanted us to get their personal information and the phony permit back (most of them we confiscate, laugh at, and then toss in the trash) and give it all to the hotel. (Who had already written down the make/model/color/plate of the offending vehicle. )
Looks like some unfortunate soul will now, instead of getting off "easy" with only owing us for a tow, is on their way to getting a nice theft of services charge dropped on them as well.....
And one block away was the municipal parking garage.... so apparently, a criminal record is worth saving a block of travel on foot..... I'm no expert in economics but that certainly seems like a case of poor trade-off, oh well.
entitledl@bigegotinybrain.com
Got an interesting, ahem, "contesting" email the other day (and it actually said that in the subject line, "contesting charges"). I suppose this typographical tsunami was the "olive branch" this kind person was extending to us, a chance to make things right in his eyes before he engages "beast mode" and lets loose his army of Martian Tripod Heat-Ray Lawyers upon us for the transgressions we made against him.
(My comments are in italics)
At 8pm on *date redacted* I parked my car at *location redacted*. When I returned at 8:30, I found my car had been ticketed and towed. As you must know, parking regulations in the Borough state that no parking enforcement may take place after 6pm. 8pm is well past this deadline.
It states no meter enforcement after 6, the private lot rules run 24/7
Furthermore, I was parked in *location redacted* , is that NOT inside the Borough? I had to drive down *street redacted* to get there, is that not a Borough street? Was it not fair for me to assume I was legally parked?
The lot at *location redacted* is a private parking lot, as soon as you pull in, you are OFF borough property, so no, it was rater stupid of you to assume that
I also can't help but wonder if I was being singled out, as I am a University employee and have University parking stickers on my car, is your company policy to specifically target University cars?
Nope, we target illegally parked cars, like, oh, I dunno, yours? And frankly, I don't "target" anything. The military targets things, I enforce rules, slight difference
Finally, there isn't any signage at that location, there was no sign directly in front of where I parked informing me that I could not park there.
But there are 3 evenly spaced signs in that lot that say "PRIVATE PARKING-TOW AWAY ZONE- ENFORCED 24/7 Friendly Neighborhood Towing xxx-xxxx"
Wouldn't it make sense to have some kind of sign in front of a parking spot informing me I could not use it if that is the case? The signs in that lot are clearly NOT at eye-level!
The ones you just said weren't there? You are aware "eye-level" is a subjective term right? And nothing in the Borough ordinance says anything about height of private parking signs, only that they be "clearly visible" and have 1 per 25 spaces. Ironically, that lot you got towed from has only 12 spaces, so at 3 signs, it's OVERSIGNED per ordinance and you still pulled on in.
I expect a quick response to these issues, and I want the contact name and information for whoever is responsible for enforcing parking regulations within the borough so that I may inform them of these issues as well.
Your guess is as good as mine there, Sir, I have no idea who that might be, how about you call the BOROUGH and not us on that one?
Sincerely, Prof. Entitled
THE UNIVERSITY
*sigh* You know, I had a sneaking suspicion I was dealing with an entitled academic, and now that it's been confirmed, I'm not surprised.
We sent him the following reply:
Sir,
The lot is private and the signage in the lot meets all Borough parking regulations, your fines and charges stand as is.
- Friendly Neighborhood Towing
Can't wait to see if we get a response, insufferable egoists like him tend to flip out when their finely-worded theses earn nothing but an unswayed one-sentence response.
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