A Chicago resident’s surveillance video captured meter maids writing parking tickets where no signs were posted, and then putting up “no parking” signs afterwards.
“It feels like an undeserved ticket at this point. These signs were not here when I parked last night. I got home from work about 2 o’clock last night. I’m in the house all night. And I come out this morning with a ticket on my car,” Joseph Castleberry, the victim of the scam, told Fox32.
The $60 ticket Castleberry was cited for by the City of Chicago alleged he ignored signs about a street-cleaning on Hoyne Avenue near his residence.
But when he reviewed his home surveillance video, it showed signs about the street cleaning weren’t posted until after several tickets were written.
“I have surveillance cameras on my house. So I go back and watch my footage and I see that they ticket me and then put up the signs for the next day.”
After the meter maid issued the tickets, another city worker comes along and posts the signs.
“All I see is a meter maid lady come by around 10:30 and start ticketing the cars. So I keep rewinding forward and about an hour later, someone else comes around and starts posting the signs up,” Castleberry said.
Not only that, but the signs posted by the city worker after the tickets were written were for Thursday. Castleberry was ticketed on Wednesday.
So first, they posted no signs, and then the wrong signs.
Optimistic about the city’s intent, Castleberry told Fox32, “I don’t want to call people out on what they do, but I am paying the price for it and I’m sure several other people are.”
Castleberry’s neighbor, Al Gates, who was also ticketed, told the news station, “If they would admit their mistake that would be nice. We don’t want to hang anybody. We don’t want to crucify anybody. We’re law abiding on this block. We’d like to be treated fairly; that’s all.”
The City of Chicago’s department of finance later stated the tickets would be thrown out and that they would talk to the meter maid to make sure she understands ‘no parking’ signs need to be posted before writing tickets, but only after the local news uncovered the apparent scam.
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