Use Your iPhone To Get Out of a Ticket 291
An anonymous reader writes to tell us that Parkingticket.com just announced new compatibility with the Safari web browser on Apple's iPhone, giving you new tools to immediately contest a parking ticket. The site is so confident in their service that if all steps are followed and the ticket is still not dismissed they will pay $10 towards your ticket. "The process begins by navigating the iPhone's Safari browser to the Parkingticket.com website where you'll find a straightforward means to fight a parking ticket; whether the ticket was issued in New York City, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia or Washington, D.C. Simply register for a free account and choose the city in which the ticket was issued. Enter your ticket and vehicle details then answer a few quick questions. The detailed process takes about ten minutes, from A-Z. To allow easy entry of your ticket, a look-a-like parking ticket is displayed — for your specific city — with interactive functionality."
nice (Score:5, Funny)
Re:nice (Score:5, Informative)
I think the iPhone just became a positive ROI for many people in these areas.
Not really. From the article, in order to even start the process you have to pay parkingticket.com a deposit equal to 50% of the ticket fine. Here is what can happen:
I guess if you're into paying a 50% fee for having someone fill out the paperwork, it's a good deal.
Re:nice (Score:5, Informative)
FTFY
Re:nice (Score:5, Interesting)
At what point in the story do we find out the Cities in question are all joint members of this site as a way to make some extra $$$?
Excuse me while I re-adjust my tinfoil hat.
Re:nice (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:nice (Score:4, Informative)
If the ticket is upheld, you pay: $12.50 (deposit) + $25.00 (ticket) = $37.50
You receive: $12.50 (refund) + $2.50 (10% of ticket) = $15.00
Net paid: $37.50 - $15.00 = $22.50
Savings = $2.50
Re:nice (Score:5, Insightful)
I think the iPhone just became a positive ROI for many people in these areas.
Or any other phone that has a half-decent web browser. All this thing does is launch Safari to take you to their website. The only reason the press release mentions the iPhone is because that's a virtual guarantee that it will be spread all over creation via the news wires and sites that don't actually read the articles beyond a few keywords such as, say, Slashdot.
Re:nice (Score:5, Interesting)
You're right. The website isn't even iPhone-optimized.
Re:nice (Score:5, Interesting)
Please, please, please pretty please stop trying to 'optimize' sites for the iPhone. It has a perfectly functional browser that deals with normal web pages just fine. Just build a normal standards compliant page that scales gracefully - which you should be doing anyway.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
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Re:Welcome to Niggerbuntu (Score:5, Informative)
That's just not slashdot's style. AFAIK there has only been one post removed from slashdot... ever. The only reason THAT one went is because the Scientologists brought out the lawyer guns.
I could be wrong, but that's what I remember of my slashdot history.
What? (Score:2, Insightful)
How exactly will you fight a legit ticket?
Re:What? (Score:5, Funny)
With Steve Jobs' magic, of course!
With a caramel Frappucino in one hand, and an iPhone in the other, the elite of the major metropolitan areas can not be stopped!
Re:What? (Score:5, Informative)
In New York City, the government offers to settle a ticket for 50% if you just challenge the ticket. The company takes half of the value you save, so they probably make a killing telling everyone to challenge and pay the settlement.
Re:What? (Score:4, Insightful)
So, in effect, they're profiting off the crimes of others?
Re:What? (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Obligatory [youtube.com]
Good clip (Score:4, Informative)
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Reading comprehension fail. It's not a crime if the officer is willing to barter the price down due to SOP.
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Isn't that how its supposed to work? Its just a big racket. They managed to find a way to automate getting a piece of it. In this economy props to them.
It's only fair, afterall; many large municipalities use tickets and violations as income streams. dnot forget the recent traffic signals scandal... [slashdot.org]
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In New York City, the government offers to settle a ticket for 50% if you just challenge the ticket. The company takes half of the value you save, so they probably make a killing telling everyone to challenge and pay the settlement.
So, basically, in the end, you pay 75% of the ticket price? Doesn't sound like that good a deal to me. Most tickets are in the $5 to $20 range. Maybe you'd be better off determining how to challenge local tickets for yourself.
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So, basically, in the end, you pay 75% of the ticket price? Doesn't sound like that good a deal to me. Most tickets are in the $5 to $20 range. Maybe you'd be better off determining how to challenge local tickets for yourself.
I don't know where in NYC you've been driving but I've never seen a $5 ticket, or even $20 for that matter. Forget to renew your registration, around $65. Illegal parking below 96th Street: $105!
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I don't know where in NYC you've been driving but I've never seen a $5 ticket, or even $20 for that matter. Forget to renew your registration, around $65. Illegal parking below 96th Street: $105!
I've never been to New York, so I wouldn't know. I was thinking of parking fines more in line with just about everywhere else I've been. Those fines are outrageous.
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I've lived in San Diego, Chicago, and Seattle. Those look like fairly regular prices to me. Perhaps a bit high on the parking, but not by much. I don't think I've ever seen a ticket for less than $50.
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Yes, by all means be careful. Where I live, my stepson got a ticket for a noise violation. His car is not really all that loud, but he is 16, which is almost as bad as a DWB. Anyway, I went with decibel meters and reports in hand to wrangle with the authorities, and the court clerk told me I had to pay $50 non-refundable if I wanted to go before the judge to plead my case, and the judge could decide to even raise the fine if he
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I lived in Chicago for several years (only big city where I've gotten parking tickets) and not a one of them was under $50...
Re:What? (Score:5, Informative)
I've never been to New York, so I wouldn't know. I was thinking of parking fines more in line with just about everywhere else I've been. Those fines are outrageous.
He is actually understating the fines. Or I should say, the total cost. I just had a car returned to me, with an expired inspection. I was literally driving it to the shop to have it inspected when I was pulled over for that.
I looked it up, saw it was a $25 fine (since it had just expired) and pleaded guilty. Big mistake.
2 week later I received a bill. $25 fine, as expected, and an $85 SURCHARGE. The total, for what was originally a $25 fine, became a $110 fine for an out of date inspection.
Thank god that I'm also literally moving out of this state today. 6 hr drive ahead of me, but good riddance.
Re:What? (Score:4, Informative)
Most tickets are in the $5 to $20 range.
No, parking fines in Manhattan range from $65 to $115. See http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/02/nyregion/02parking.html [nytimes.com] (multimedia sidebar popup).
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The iPhone (Score:3, Funny)
Will we see this on A&E parking wars? (Score:3, Funny)
Will we see this on A&E parking wars?
Startup.com (Score:2)
Re:Startup.com (Score:4, Funny)
Yes... it is exactly like that. Parkingticket.com has been operating for 7 years, is still in business, and releasing new products. And govworks.com was in existence for only 3 years, never really got off the ground and crashed and burned before parkingticket.com even existed. So, yes, they are very eerily similar.
Re:Startup.com (Score:5, Informative)
I should note that after doing a little more research [parkingticket.com], I found that the company has been in business for much longer. The founder has been in the getting-out-of-parking-tickets business since 1982, designed a system called ALARM in the early nineties that performed the service for companies with fleets of vehicles, and in 2001 (when they started parkingticket.com) he estimated the company's revenue at $3MM.
Huh? (Score:2, Informative)
Is this an ad or something?
Free? Be careful... (Score:2)
Simply register for a free account and choose the city in which the ticket was issued. Enter your ticket and vehicle details then answer a few quick questions.
I thought there is nothing free in this world especially the USA...or is there? OK tell me. What is in it for Parkingticket.com? Where is the catch?
Re:Free? Be careful... (Score:5, Informative)
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Well, they are getting your email contact info, etc. and then they know you have an iPhone. So you can start getting some targeted spam...
Re:Free? Be careful... (Score:5, Funny)
I thought there is nothing free in this world especially the USA
There's plenty free. Air is free, and it's a lot cleaner air than when I was growing up (although cleaning up the mess industry made cost us taxpayers a bundle, and few corporations pay any US Federal Income Tax).
Rainwater waters your gardens for free.
Sunrises and sunsets are free.
You can often get condoms for free. The free ones are generally better than ones you buy from bars' rest rooms, the last one I bought at Farley's was out of date.
Heat is free in the summertime, and air conditioning is free in the winter.
The corporations all get free rides from the Federal Government.
You never heard "the best things in life are free?" It's true. You can't buy true friends.
Whoever said money doesn't grow on trees never owned an orchard!
Re:Free? Be careful... (Score:5, Funny)
You can't buy true friends.
My true friend is a RealDoll, you insensitive clod !
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
You don't really want to tax corporations much.
You need to tax the employee's.
If the corporation leaves, then all the popel it would employee have no money, and you generate no tax revenue.
we've seen this plenty of times.
Save your money (Score:5, Insightful)
Doesn't look like anything special.. just an automated ambulance-chasing service. They get 50% of the price of the ticket by filing some forms to contest it. There must be a low conviction rate for parking tickets (or people who fight them), and they're just taking advantage of that fact. To top it all off, they get all of your personal information, including the make, model, and plate numbers of your vehicle. I'm not sure whether an attorney-client relationship would exist in this scenario, but even if it did, they could probably resell anonymized information.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Lots of jurisdictions are so crowded that all a lawyer has to do is show up to contest the ticket and it'll get dropped to save time.
iPhone? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:iPhone? (Score:4, Interesting)
You're right, there is absolutely nothing about this that makes it iPhone specific. Any camera phone with a web browser (or any other combination of camera and web browser...) can do the very same thing.
Of course, adding "iPhone" to the title of anything suddenly makes it 100x more newsworthy in the eyes of fanboys :)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
"Use Your web browser and camera To Get Out of A Ticket"
There.
The so-called news here is that they finally got their site to work on iPhone's Safari.
It's always a celebration when the slowest runner finishes the race.
Can you say "file an appeal?" (Score:4, Interesting)
Those sites and processes only work if you are willing to appeal the judges decision and go through the effort. Plan on the judge looking at you and saying "guilty" in court--they know it's a matter of numbers and most people will just pay the ticket and go about their business. The sites are more of a rip-off than just paying the darned things.
Trust me on this--I've tried.
Peace!
Feeble Announcement (Score:4, Insightful)
So basically, this site has nothing whatsoever to do with the iPhone except actually working on the browser. The screenshot shows that's it not even an iPhone-specific page.
Reduced less than 25% (Score:3, Informative)
What about this scenario?
$30.00 parking ticket.
deposit $15.00.
The ticket gets reduced to $25.00.
They refund $7.50, but you've still paid them $7.50.
You're out $32.50, more than the original ticket.
This happens in every case where the ticket is reduced less than 25%. They need to address this.
Still, I like the idea in general.
Re:Reduced less than 25% (Score:5, Informative)
I believe your math is incorrect.
$30 Parking Ticket
You deposit $15
The ticket is reduced to $25
From the article: If, after a hearing, the parking ticket fine is reduced rather then dismissed, parkingticket.com retains half of the amount you saved and refunds the balance.
So you saved $5 off the parking ticket. Parking ticket retains $2.50 (1/2 the amount you saved) and refunds the rest ($12.50)
So your ticket has cost you $27.50, not $32.50
Granted, you're still paying $2.50 more than you have to if you went it alone. Hell, the ONLY time you can actually come out ahead is if you use their service for a ticket you KNOW will not be reduced or dismissed. Then you make $10 (but of course are out the full price of the ticket)
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Except most municipalities offer a reduced fine if you pay it quickly. In my city, it is roughly half, so there is zero incentive to enlist Parkingticket.com for me. If they beat the fine, I still owe them as much as if I had simply paid the fine without contest. If they lose, sure they give me $10, but the "court fees" get tacked on to the fine, which are usually something like $25 or more (depending on the fine!?).
Parkingtickets.com is useless to me. Wake me when they accept bids to hunt down and beat
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From TFA:
ONLY available in those 5 cities (Score:5, Informative)
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Plus you get that warm glow which comes from knowing that you made one less space available to genuinely disabled people ! Epic win !
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Or you can not be an asshole, and not park in the handicapped spot in the first place. Those exist for a reason, and while there's usually more than needed, I've been in situations where I wasn't able to use the parking space I needed because some fuckwit in a BMW M3 parked in the handicapped spot.
Fortunately, there was a cop shop next door, and I went there instead. The officer who wrote the ticket said "unfortunately, being mentally handicapped doesn't count unless you've got a permit". I get a warmfuzzy
Looks like the /. spam filter has broken (Score:3, Insightful)
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No, you were correct Slashdot had human editors at one point in time. Now it's just all Firehose silliness. Oh, those were the days.
Not the whole story (Score:2, Interesting)
An anonymous reader writes to tell us that Parkingticket.com just announced new compatibility with the Safari web browser on Apple's iPhone, giving you new tools to immediately contest a parking ticket. The site is so confident in their service that if all steps are followed and the ticket is still not dismissed they will pay $10 towards your ticket.
I live in Washington state, where it's illegal to use a hand-held phone while driving. If I'm trying to immediately contest a ticket and get pulled over for using a phone while driving, will parkingticket.com automatically contest that one as well? Otherwise it's gonna be a vicious circle.
Re:Not the whole story (Score:4, Funny)
So exactly how often do you get pulled over and issued a parking ticket?
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If you're immediately contesting a ticket while driving, it's not a parking ticket, but a driving ticket... aka a "moving violation". It's parkingticket.com and they say parking ticket in the summary, so something tells me your moving violation isn't covered.
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Why would you be contesting it whilst driving? Why not from the sidewalk or while sitting in the car when it's parked?
You can't tell me that it's illegal to use a cell phone in a parked car. The meter maid can't sit there and issue a new ticket every 2 seconds if you don't move right away. There has to be some minimum period between consecutive tickets for the same offense, or at least a tow to the impound after so many hours/days.
Besides, why would Parkingticket.com take responsibility for your illegal beh
Really? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Yes, it would. But people would lose out on all the experience they are giving their 3-year-olds by letting them practice parking. At least I'm sure that's what's happening judging by the parking jobs I see on a daily basis.
Re:Really? (Score:4, Insightful)
That's insane!
next you will suggest people don't speed, tailgate or run red lights...
Are you MAD?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Embarrassing story ahead:
One night I was visiting my girlfriend at her dorm, and was just going to hang out for like 30 minutes and then head to a movie or dinner.
I parked in the closest spot I could find, which was actually really, really close. The sign said Resident's Parking Only.
When we came back out I had a ticket for $50, and was like "WTF?" because I had even parked her car so she had all the right stickers.
Turns out, the sign said President's Parking Only. Failure.
I doubt it will work in DC (Score:5, Funny)
In my old apartment in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of DC, there was a sign that said you could not park beyond that sign. If you assumed that you could park on the OTHER side of the sign, you would be wrong. The other side of the sign was a cross walk.
Half a block from that spot, there is another sign indicating where you can and cannot park. If you park where the sign indicates it is legal, you will get a ticket for parking too close to a fire hydrant. My friend took photos showing that the sign itself was 9 feet from the hydrant. He went to court in person. The judge said it doesn't matter where the sign is, the law says you have to be 10 feet from the hydrant.
The Washington Post has a column called Dr. Gridlock. I recall a few years back where they ran stories of tickets in DC. One person got a ticket for parking at an expired meter. He appealed by mail (which you can't even do anymore) and included a photograph showing that there were, in fact, no parking meters on the street where he was parked. His appeal was denied.
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Many years ago I had a couple of friends who got jay walking tickets. One friend's ticket was correct and he paid it. However, the other friend's ticket was dated a month before the actual infraction took place. Even though he pointed this out in court whilst contesting the ticket, the judge decided that it didn't matter and made him pay anyway.
Bad Headline (Score:2)
Use Your IPhone To Get Out Of A Parking Ticket
After all, some people get ticketed for other things that they would like to be able to get out of. If an iPhone could get me out of a speeding ticket I would buy one today.
Not useful where parking is privately owned (Score:2)
While this is probably great if most of the parking is city owned and the meter readers are ticket happy (Miami, perhaps?), us suburban dwellers have an entirely worse problem if we accidentially park somewhere we're not supposed to - the vehicle will be towed. And if you think parking tickets are sneaky, you haven't experienced how frustrating it is to have your car towed because you didn't see that "Tow Away Zone" sign that was behind a shrub, underneath a street light with a burned out bulb.
At that poin
Just say no -- for all our benefit (Score:4, Funny)
Pathetic (Score:5, Interesting)
People who want to park their cars for free are pathetic whiners. Cars cost our society an enormous amount. Why shouldn't the individual using the car pay for some of the car's costs?
That said, I did get in illegitimate parking ticket once (parked under a sign with restriction hours posted on it, outside the restriction hours). They dismissed it, eventually.
But I suspect that the overwhelming majority of parking tickets are perfectly legitimate and completely deserved.
Re:Nice.. but (Score:4, Interesting)
I've seen a lot of bad parking jobs.
I almost got a ticket once, because the parking meter I was parked at ran out. The parking enforcement officer came up, tapped on my window, and asked "Are you going to pay that, or do I have to write you a ticket?"
I pointed at the car that had double parked beside me. I hadn't stayed to be a scofflaw, I had stayed because there was a car blocking me in.
The officer was much more interested in writing the ticket for parking in the road, blocking traffic, etc, etc. When the lady noticed her car was getting ticketed, she ran over, jumped in, and took off. I hope she got the ticket in the mail.
But likewise, not all tickets are legitimate.
I got ticketed once, for parking in my own driveway. They believed my bumper was "too close" to the sidewalk. Since the other bumper was against the garage door, and the vehicle wasn't in any way blocking the sidewalk, they were just looking for anything to ticket. I lived there over a year, and always parked there, and only was ticketed once. They should have made more of an effort to ticket the people who parked across my driveway. Sometimes I couldn't leave because they were blocking me in.
Re:Nice.. but (Score:4, Interesting)
They should have made more of an effort to ticket the people who parked across my driveway. Sometimes I couldn't leave because they were blocking me in.
A buddy of mine had that problem. He spraypainted all over the car in "chalk paint" that washes off very easy, it's used by car lots.
HE WRITES : DONT PARK HERE ASSHOLE
He says he has to do it only once to a person and they wont park within a block of his driveway.
Re:Nice.. but (Score:4, Funny)
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When parking your car becomes a central theme in your life, you need to consider living somewhere else.
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Sure they're happy, if you pay for the tow yourself. Everywhere I've ever lived, the only way to get a car towed at the driver's expense is to go through the police, which is cumbersome and mostly pointless, unless you somehow live in a magic fantasy land where cops aren't lazy pricks.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Sure they're happy, if you pay for the tow yourself. Everywhere I've ever lived, the only way to get a car towed at the driver's expense is to go through the police, which is cumbersome and mostly pointless, unless you somehow live in a magic fantasy land where cops aren't lazy pricks.
In Texas not only can they tow you, but even if they tow you illegally, you still have to pay.
To actually get your money back you have to sue in small claims court.
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Re:Parking tickets (Score:4, Interesting)
There isn't a jurisdiction in the United States that will give you a jury trial for a parking ticket.
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Re:Parking tickets (Score:5, Informative)
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Granted, that $20.00 was worth a lot more when the bill was passed, and any jury that got pulled from work to try your parking ticket is going to be pissed (good luck finding an unbiased group), but you do have the federally mandated right to do so.
Re:Parking tickets (Score:4, Insightful)
Doesn't matter. Parking tickets are "infractions" or "violations" and technically not crimes. So the bill of rights does not apply. Obviously there's no difference in real life, but in the legal fantasy land our courts occupy there is.
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Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Parking tickets should be backed up with photographs anyways, taken by the ticket-writer.
There's hundreds of years of jurisprudence based on the idea that an eyewitness account of an alleged act, delivered by a person bound by oath to be truthful, can be accepted by the court as evidence supporting the alleged act. Why would you want to reverse that?
Taken to a logical end, wouldn't this also mean that rapists, murderers, and kidnappers would walk free if none of the witnesses to their crimes happened to ha
Pay the darn tax and move on (Score:2)
can be accepted by the court as evidence supporting the alleged act
as evidence, not as guilty because a ticket was written. In these cases the witness cannot be expected to remember a single detail other than "I don't write tickets unless they are guilty" same with officers on speeding, etc. The statements in court will always be more of a "this is what typically happens." Not a single detail not written down is really about your incident. Good luck getting them to admit it in court though.
you're always free to take your own photographs
Good luck with that, the chances of them being allowed are essentially zilch
Re: (Score:2)
The problem is that the parking nazi should not be allowed to be a witness as they cannot be expected to deliver an impartial testimony. The employees are coerced into delivering as many fines as possible, otherwise they wouldn't be handing out a single ticket. Their employer directly profits from parking fines, it is the first reason why there are parking fines. It's not about managing spaces or congestion, it's just about money.
What, you think a normal human being has a desire to stick random strangers
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There's hundreds of years of jurisprudence based on the idea that an eyewitness account of an alleged act, delivered by a person bound by oath to be truthful, can be accepted by the court as evidence supporting the alleged act. Why would you want to reverse that?
Because science has since shown that eye witnesses are highly suggestible and unreliable. It is always reasonable to doubt eye witness testimony.
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Because no one will ever use the myspace angle [officialda...source.com]. Cops / Meter Maids will get pretty good at making it look like you've done a hundred things illegal.
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Unused photos should be destroyed as soon as practical, within hours of the end of the person's shift at the latest.
How would that help if tickets were contested? "Oh we took a picture but deleted it the same day, so you'll have to take our word for it"?
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Ah, yeah, sorry, that makes more sense.
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Tickets for parking too long in one spot should be accompanied by proof that you did exceed the time, including photos showing the wheels in the same position at the start time and stop time.
I think I'd want a bit more than the spokes of my tires appearing to line up the same. Photographic evidence is useful for displaying that something happened or was located somewhere at a specific time. But useless at proving nothing happened during the time gap between 2 images.
Then again, I also don't understand the idea of limiting the time that someone is allowed to continuously park in the same place. Prohibiting overnight parking? Sure, I can see some valid reasons for that. But, stating that you
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Re:Parking tickets (Score:4, Insightful)
Street parking time limits are meant to provide short-term parking for people to use for short visits to area businesses. The maximum time limit enforces churn.
I can guarantee the sex of your next baby. (Score:2, Offtopic)
Fees for my services are quite high at $10,000 / baby, but what value can you put on having your perfect designer family ? If your baby is born of the 'wrong' sex, I will not only refund the entire $10,000, but will give you an extra $5,000 by way of compensation. It's win-win, I tell you !
Now, where's my first customer ?
(Thanks to Richard Dawkins for putting me onto this wonderful line of business.)
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, you still owe me $45,000 for my 3 girls, punk!