i have friends on 49th and locust who'd gotten several crazy parking tickets such as yours. i'm attaching an email that they sent out detailing their experiences, it's a fascinating read, there was a previous incident where they'd gotten two parking tickets at the same time 15 miles apart which they beat, i can't find that one, but it was like ticket one, 2:00 expired meter 45th and market, ticket 2, 2:00 blockign intersection with overturned fruit cart, somewhere in fishtown. i can't find that one, but anyway, here's the tale of their second experience:
My Friends- Once again, the FORCES OF GOOD (as personified by myself and lovely bride, Judi) have triumphed over the FORCES OF EVIL (as again personified by the Philadelphia Parking Authority). This was a particularly great triumph, as we managed to snatch victory from the VERY JAWS of defeat, and triumph over a SECOND unjust ticket that we DIDN'T EVEN KNOW ABOUT... But I'm getting ahead of myself... Back in February, as many of you will remember, Judi gave birth to our son, Uzi. It was a joyous occasion for all involved, except the SINISTER FORCES of the PPA! When I went to the hospital on February 24th to retrieve my newborn progeny there was a good solid 2 feet of snow on the ground. Much of it had been plowed to the side of the road, practically burying the parking meters along the side. The plowed snow would melt a bit during the day, then freeze into a layer of ice at night, making the tremendous snow banks that lined the roads TREACHEROUS and UNSTABLE to walk on. When I parked our car near the hospital, I attempted to surmount the NIGH-INSURMOUNTABLE obstacle presented by the icy snow piles in order to pay the parking meter. As I approached the summit, the unstable surface GAVE WAY and I PLUNGED crotch deep into the snow! Undaunted, I valiantly struggled to reach the parking meter, put a quarter into the slot, turned the dial, and was rewarded for my effort with a RED "VIOLATION" FLAG! I was unwilling to find another parking space (with another parking meter that may or may not work), and so left my car in the care of the defective meter, ran into the hospital, gathered up my waiting wife and child, and DASHED back to the car- all in UNDER 5 MINUTES- only to find A PARKING TICKET for an EXPIRED METER! I calmly wrote the parking meter number on the ticket (always do that- trust me) and planned to appeal. I sent a letter to the parking authority about 2 weeks later. They granted my appeal. Today I had my day in court. To be honest, I was a bit nervous going into this thing- truth was on my side, but I had no ACTUAL PROOF that the meter was defective. So we went into our little hearing room, with a pretty nice seeming lady adjudicating, gave her a copy of the letter I had send on March 11th, explained the situation, and let her do her thing... First she looked up our license plate on her computer, whereupon she found THE TICKET IN QUESTION, PLUS A SECOND TICKET, allegedly issued a month later, for $100 PLUS LATE FEES, for "BLOCKING MASS TRANSIT" on the 200 block of 40th street! WHAT?! We were aghast! We'd never received such a ticket! So she agreed to give us a hearing for that ticket right on the spot.... So in the matter of the first ticket, she looked up the history of meter #308, and discovered a number of complaints about it, all claiming it was defective. HOWEVER there was no report of it being defective on the date we got the ticket (excluding my letter about it being defective on that date) and so the best she could do was wave the late fees on our ticket and let the original $15 fine stand... WE WEREN'T HAVING ANY OF THAT CRAP! We scrambled a bit for our next move, and eventually I calmly but firmly asked her to look up how close to that date there were reports of it's MALFUNCTIONING tendencies... She starts scrolling backwards through time... July... April... March...oh, wait... TICKET DISMISSED! She found that the meter had received complaints THE DAY BEFORE AND TWO DAYS AFTER our ticket was issued! WOO-HOO! (Lessons learned, ALWAYS TAKE NOTES, ALWAYS ASK QUESTIONS!) So now the matter of the mysterious SECOND TICKET... Since we never received a copy of this ticket, she looked it up on her computer. Apparently they store a SCAN of every ticket they issue. When she gets it, her brow furrows...She gets up, a bit flustered, and leaves the room. When she comes back she's following a VERY LARGE, GHOSTLY PALE WHITE DUDE (henceforth to be known as "WHITEY") who sat at the computer and began typing, also with brow furrowed. Eventually WHITEY announced, "OK, you know what I'm gonna do? Oh wait, I can't tell you what I'm gonna do, I'm not presiding on this one..." turned OFF the tape recorder, and asked our PPA adjudicator lady to step out in the hall. After a brief conference she came back and said "WE'RE RULING THAT A DEFECTIVE TICKET, and WAVING ALL FINES!" ROCK! Apparently whoever issued the ticket wrote our license plate # and nothing else- no description of the car, no circumstances under which they issued the ticket, nothing... DEFECTIVE TICKET! WOO HOO! So ONCE AGAIN we were able to don our Sam Lowery-like armor, fly heavenward, and GLORIOUSLY SLAY THE EVIL SPECTER of the PHILADELPHIA PARKING AUTHORITY! ROCK ON!!! Peace, Donno ---- You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named "UnivCity." To unsubscribe or for archive information, see <http://www.purple.com/list.html>.
