Forgot malevolent spiders in parking meters or other acts of God, parking in SF is a USDA Grade A large-scale bitch even on a good day. Just because you’ve finally found a place to park your vehicle doesn’t mean it’s safe from unneeded fines. As the Ex reports, one potentially overzealous meter maid attempted to bend time and space, issuing a $62 ticket that by all evidence is erroneous.
Forest Hill resident Beth Chen was just starting her day after getting her car cleaned in Daly City. A receipt for Westlake Touchless Car Wash on 87th St. was issued for 9:24am. After the twenty minute car wash, she drove about ten to fifteen minutes into the city, arriving at the Stonestown YMCA around 10:29am. At least, that’s when her membership card logged her entering the Y. Yet somehow when Chen returned to her vehicle, she had a ticket for staying past the two hour parking limit. The problem? The ticket had been issued at noon. Though the citation said Chen had been at the spot since 9:36am, Chen’s receipts say otherwise.
Chen has formally contested the ticket. She says another woman was faced with a similar incident that very day. “I don’t know if it was because it was the end of the month and they needed to meet some quota, but this is just flat out wrong,” says Chen.
SFMTA spokesperson Paul Rose has a theory to this madness. He thinks Chen’s car may have picked up marking chalk meant for another vehicle that was parked there previously. Rose also notes that the parking control officer in question has no history of complaints.
