One of my pet peeves was people parking in the disabled spaces to use the ATMs on campus. The ATM building was at the edge of a parking lot and Parking Services even put in five spaces that were clearly marked as ATM Parking Only. But the disabled spaces were closer. On many occasions, I found vehicles parked sideways in two disabled spaces to access the ATMs, so convenient that the disabled spaces were available like that. Those people usually got parking tickets. Especially if there were available ATM spaces.
On two occasions, something unusual happened:
One. I saw the car parked sideways across two (possibly three) disabled parking spaces. I pulled to the side and got out and started writing the ticket ($351). The driver saw me, collected his money from the ATM and ran to his vehicle to drive away. Do people really think that makes a difference? Usually, we just mail the parking ticket to them, but I decided that it was a slow day, so I followed him. He drove into the neighborhoods nearby and tried to make a whole bunch of turns in the hopes that I would keep going and stop following him. I saw him park in an apartment complex and walk away (it was clear that he didn’t live there, he was just hoping that I would go away, now that he was a pedestrian). I parked, walked down to his car and placed the parking ticket on his windshield. I returned to my patrol car and started to drive away. The driver returned to his car and immediately ran up to me waving his parking ticket.
“Please, can you take this back? I don’t have this kind of money.”
“You were parked in two, possibly three disabled spaces, illegally.”
“Can you just write me a ticket for parking in two spaces, instead?”
“How about if I write you a disabled space ticket for each disabled space you occupied?”
“Oh. I’ll just take this one.”
Two. Again, a car was parked sideways across two disabled spaces, and again, the driver saw me, ran to his car and drove away. Deciding to mail the parking ticket to him, I asked dispatch for the registered owner’s address. The address was just a few blocks from campus, so I drove to the address, found the vehicle parked out front on the street, and I placed the ticket under the windshield wiper. I saw the driver peeking out at me through the window, but he never came out. I waved and drove away.
These were the only two instances where something out of the ordinary happened. More often, when the drivers would see me writing the tickets they would run back to the car and plead with me not to get a ticket. I would explain why I believed they deserved the ticket and then they would yell and shout, or tear up the ticket, or cry, or threaten to have my badge.
You know, the usual.