Parking Nazis!

I woke up this morning and was in a considerably good mood until I walked out to my car. As I lowered myself into the driver’s seat, I saw the little yellow envelope on the windshield that meant I had a parking ticket. I got out of the car, and before even picking up the ticket, I checked to make sure no part of my car was by a red curb or near a “no parking” sign. It wasn’t. I was perfectly legally parked. Convinced that there was some mistake, I took the envelope and opened it to read the ticket. I was being fined $47 for “wheel cramping – hill.” My parking break was on, and the hill isn’t anything crazy like you find in San Francisco or anything, but I was issued a $47 dollar fine for not having my wheels turned into the hill hard enough!

Flustered, I looked down the line of cars parked behind mine. All but one had also been visited by the parking ticket fairy for what I can only assume is the same offence. I glanced at the other side of the street…same thing. I’m furious. What a stupid thing to get ticketed for! At first I figured that the parking cop must have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed this morning and was just abusing his authority because it gave him some sort of sick satisfaction. But then I remembered when I lived in NY and how I’d watch the speedometer much more closely towards the end of the month. NY, (and most states as it turns out) has a quota of speeding tickets that its officers try to meet every month. You are much more likely to get a ticket for a 5mph infraction at the end of the month, than at the beginning. I’m figuring it’s the same way with parking tickets here in San Diego. It’s the 31st of October (yea…happy Halloween to me) and I bet this parking cop slacked off all month and had to scramble today to dole out his quota of tickets. I counted 11 tickets on cars on my block alone!

Still sort of in shock, I opened the envelope one more time. This time I read the fine to be $25! I’m confused. I could have sworn I read the fine to be $47. I turn the ticket over. WTF! It’s actually TWO tickets back to back! The $25 dollar ticket is for not having my current registration displayed. But it is. The stickers on my license plate clearly indicate that my registration is good until January of 2007. Closer inspection of the ticket shows that the citing officer claimed I have “no current window sticker.” Well yea…in my home state, proof of registration is on the plates only. I don’t know how California does it, but I have no window sticker to indicate registration…just the plate stickers. I even checked the front and back plates of my car to make sure I had the right stickers on both. I do.

Here’s the kicker: I was planning on contesting. If not the wheel cramping ticket, at least the registration ticket. But I can’t. Technically it’s not my car, it’s my fathers. It’s registered back home because that’s where he lives. As a student I can use that as justification for not having changed my plates to California thirty days after moving here, but since I’m taking a break from being a student…no bueno. I can’t contest unless I have proof of my being a current student. So I have no choice but to suck it up and pay $72 dollars in bogus fines. Happy F%$k!*g Halloween!