Punished For Not Driving

[Taxious]

I walk out to my car to drive somewhere, and can't find it anywhere. The street that I parked on has everything blocked off and there is some construction going on. "Alright, they must have moved it..." I call the construction company, who give me the number to the city of Denver, who give me the number... - it goes on and on - before I finally get a hold of someone that tells me my car has probably been "temporarily towed and that I should just look around for it close by." After spending an hour walking up and down the streets of Denver, it's no where to be found.

I call again, and they give me yet another number to try. I finally get an answer of "all of those cars were towed to Cheeseman Park" which is about 1.5 miles from my place. I ride my bike up there only to find a stream of cars - all with tickets on them. I open mine, $100 towing fee, $40 parking ticket. WTF???

I end up going to the city court to try and figure things out and basically get told to fuck myself.
"There was a 24 hour warning on the street that construction would begin the next day and your car was still there."
"Well, I obviously would have moved my car if I had seen that. I don't drive every day and wasn't aware of anything like this. I don't really think it's fair of you to ticket people if you need to pull a fast construction job. Shouldn't' the city of Denver pay for towing on something like this??"
....
At this point, no matter what I say, he has the same exact response:
"I understand sir, but <repeats same thing>"

Then he starts haggling with me about the ticket and I feel like I'm on a game show. "Well sir, I can waive half of the ticket fee, but nothing of the towing fee. This is also something I can only do today." So that's it, my options are to take $20 off the ticket right then and there, or take it to court (I'm a full time student and have a job, how the fuck am I supposed to find the time to do that??).

I end up paying the ticket but am still pretty pissed about the whole thing. Is it pretty common knowledge that the city does this kind of shit and I should have been looking at my car every day, or what?? I hate that feeling of getting screwed over with absolutely no power to do anything about it.

[Freecare Spiritwise]

Something like that happened to me once. I lived in an apartment and owned 2 vehicles, and I went to work with my truck parked on the street legally.

I thought it was stolen, and I made a police report, and was several days before I heard anything. Turns out they had tacked up a "temporary tow away zone" and promptly towed it. Buy the time they finally told me, it had raked up a few hundred dollars in towing fees.

What sweet little scams that cities and towing companies have. And those towing companies are all bastards, every last one of them.

[Taxious]

Let's say I did have the time/money to take this to court, would I even stand a chance? Something that feels so obviously wrong in my mind just happened, yet I have no possibility of correcting it? Great system....

[Ariannda Kusanagi]

My opinion is that you wouldn't stand a chance because they'd use the argument of "the signs were posted, just because you didn't see them doesn't mean they weren't there, you had fair warning" much the same as "well officer i didn't SEE the speed limit sign" would be shot down as well. It's like saying "well i didn't leave the house for 3 days so how would i have seen?" in which case they'd simply tell you that it's your problem for not leaving the house for 3 days, again the signs were up. Personally, I'd take my chances and see if you could at least get the amount reduced, you don't need a lawyer anymore then you would for a speeding ticket, but I know your problem is more having the time to go to court that day and of course be the last one to be called =)

[Klast Brell]

That's bullshit. What if you had been out of town for a few days?

[Embar Angylwrath]

That's bullshit. What if you had been out of town for a few days?

Most cities have a time limit on how long a car can be parked on the street without moving. It's usually 24-72 hours. If it sits any longer than that, it can be towed away. Here in San Diego, its 72 hours I think.

[Ariannda Kusanagi]

That's bullshit. What if you had been out of town for a few days?

Again they would probably say "not our problem, someone else could have moved the car" or some other shit

[Ddrak]

It sucks, but it's unlikely you can do anything about it. As long as the legislation says they only need a 24 hour notice of temporary changes in the parking laws then they did everything by the book and nothing you can do will help.

Dd

[Freecare Spiritwise]

Yeah, Tax is screwed.

[Mukik]

If you want to give me the details, I can ask my friend from high school he works for the denver inpound lot, has for like 10 years after a long stint at dgh. I can ask him if theres anything you can do. but odds are you may just be as screwed as if you were in chicago.

[Taxious]

That's bullshit. What if you had been out of town for a few days?

Yeah, I was thinking about the "what ifs" too. What if I had a big test that night and couldn't find my car to drive to school? What if I had to go to the ER? Etc...

Most cities have a time limit on how long a car can be parked on the street without moving. It's usually 24-72 hours. If it sits any longer than that, it can be towed away. Here in San Diego, its 72 hours I think.

Some parking spots have that posted, yes. Where I was, it was free parking until the next street-sweeping though.

If you want to give me the details, I can ask my friend from high school he works for the denver inpound lot, has for like 10 years after a long stint at dgh. I can ask him if theres anything you can do. but odds are you may just be as screwed as if you were in chicago.

Thanks Muk, but I don't think I have much to stand on. Of course I got screwed (IMO) but it's not like they give a shit now (after I've paid the ticket). I'll just keep a closer eye on my car from now on I guess...

[Garrdor]

Don't back down on this.

I'm going to the courthouse here in Medford today to argue over a seatbelt ticket citation (and an improper turn onto a street citation) I got, whilst pulling out of my driveway. Stupid shit happens all the time, no matter where you go. There's the law, and there's common sense. Ticketing you for parking where you normally park is pretty fucked up. Any sane person could agree with me. I don't blame you for feeling victimized.

Im dreading having to deal with whatever tard they put behind the gavel in this town. I know I'm not going to be able to walk out of there quietly. The price we pay for showing them we ARENT just another little insect they can step on.

[Freecare Spiritwise]

Im dreading having to deal with whatever tard they put behind the gavel in this town. I know I'm not going to be able to walk out of there quietly. The price we pay for showing them we ARENT just another little insect they can step on.

So the insect is going to make a lot of buzzing noises before it gets stepped on? That'll show 'em!

[Ariannda Kusanagi]

If there's a seat belt law and you were in the vehicle that was moving and it was not fastened you are in fact in violation of the law and they have every right to ticket you. In MD they need no other reason to pull you over then a seat belt violation, it's no longer something they can right in addition to another ticket... however I agree with you on improper turning if you have to back out of your driveway i'm not sure what they want exactly.

[Taxious]

Im dreading having to deal with whatever tard they put behind the gavel in this town. I know I'm not going to be able to walk out of there quietly. The price we pay for showing them we ARENT just another little insect they can step on.

So the insect is going to make a lot of buzzing noises before it gets stepped on? That'll show 'em!

Yeah, this is basically where I'm at with it. I can't make a change in the government (or my situation) without spending a lot of time/money. Of course what happened makes me mad, but it's just not worth (also fairly infeasible from my point of view) trying to change.

[Garrdor]

I'd rather blindly keep getting up, than lay there and pretend to be knocked out Call it stupidity, arrogance. I've just had enough of it. The root of my frustration with authority right now stems partially from my situation here at work. I got my 'final written warning' on last friday. I bust my ass without break 8 hours every day, 5 days out of the week. I don't complain, I play by the rules - yet the management thinks they need an upgrade to the position. Well, they're doing a good job of eventually freeing it up.

Apparently -- not only am I a smoker, I also like to smoke out on the stairwell balcony. (which any employee could tell you, could be grounds for termination on first offense). I didnt' take this accusation from an 'anonymous employee' seriously until the management used it as ammunition to crack down on me. I've also heard back on complaints that I'm not a very nice person to my patients. There's no evidence from the patients, or anybody, other than these calls.

I don't know what they want from me. I've felt pretty victimized lately. I usually just go with the flow, now people I know IRL are angry at me for growing a pair. Fuck, I've had someone spit in my face and called me a 'fag' and I just stood there and looked at the ground.

Oh, and by the way -

I was wearing my seatbelt. I took it by reflex as the cop pulled me over. Fuck, I'm not going to lie to get myself out of a $90 ticket I can get taken off with a viewing of Red Asphalt (which I happen to find boner inspiring). He got me for the improper turn (out of my driveway) onto a (private) road. Maybe i should've included those details. I'm not crying over getting caught breaking the law, I'm standing up for myself for being picked on by a dipshit cop who needed to meet his quota.

I've been fucked with for too long. Reading Tax's story doesn't help things. Every time I've gone to somebody for input, they've shared similar stories. Stories of unjust bullying of innocent people in their every-day lives.

There you go. Nerdrage venting over the interweb, right? Maybe I'm just male PMSing or something. Anybody have one of those squeezy-ball things?

[Taxious]

Argh, that sounds really aggravating Garr. Good luck on getting something done about it.

[Freecare Spiritwise]

Been there, done that, for both scenarios. Rage certainly isn't the answer. I used to be very angry in my youth, and all it ever did for me was to amplify my problems. I had more traffic tickets by age 20 then most people have their entire lives, and really, about all you can do is pay 'em and exit the courtroom before you piss off the judge or say something stupid. At least for traffic court, there's not a whole lot of justice there. I've seen lots of people fight tickets and win, but you risk double fines if you lose.

My philosophy for jobs is there's no reason to go to any great lengths to get rid of me. If I'm not welcome somewhere, I leave, period. Whatever game playing just isn't necessary. And if/when that happens, it's not something I dwell on or look to get back at them - I just move on. Life is too short, and I'd rather focus my time on kicking ass and making the boss money.

[Taxious]

Wow...

I got another ticket (yesterday) while my car was parked. This time it was for having invalid registration stickers on my license plate. I must admit, my tickets were outdated at the time of the ticket... by an hour and a half.

I figured that I'd have to be driving around to get a ticket for old tags, but apparently they can just slap the ticket on your parked car at 1:30AM. WTF...

[Kulaf]

Yeah those meter maids are HARDCORE!