zlacker

Five to ten years ago (I really forget exactly when) I had my car towed from the street in front of my house in Minneapolis because I had forgotten to pay a few parking tickets – something which only could have happened with either an extremely bored officer manually entering license plate numbers to check... or with an automatic reader which searched every plate it saw.

>>colech+(OP)
I had this same thing happen to me a couple months ago. Parked legally, came back from a short trip... no car

>>colech+(OP)
Or they get a list of the day from a computer that lists the cars registered address.

>>xcskie+31
I'm also from Minneapolis and had my car towed twice under really questionable circumstances.

My roommate got it worse though. He was towed for parking within 5 feet of driveway, yet the driveway was invisible because it had been completely covered by the 4-5 feet of snowed piled up on the side of the road.

>>sjg007+l4
Yeah. They already know where you live, and they already have all your car's info. No fancy license plate scanner needed, just a database.

>>colech+(OP)
Out of curiosity, how does on forget to pay several parking tickets?

Normally, I'm a very forgetful person, but letting debt pile up is something I never allow myself to forget.

When I lived in Germany everyone paid their parking tickets religiously. In the UK you'd also have your car towed away until you paid your tickets with interest plus the storage and towing fee.

>>ChuckN+ED
I found a parking ticket blowing down the street. I'm sure whoever owns it will be reminded in a timely fashion.

j/k Their license will be suspended and the fee will be treble after the expiration date. And they still won't know until they get pulled over or run a license check.

>>yardie+6W
But the GP clearly knew they had multiple outstanding parking tickets. It's not like they causally didn't know.

edit/ I've been there personally and I was simply unable to afford them, it had nothing to do with forgetting. Thankfully I never had my car towed as a result.

>>ChuckN+ED
There was a period where I was ticketed rather frequently for various reasons centering around having an overwhelmed schedule and needing to drive to parking constrained areas with lots of meters and complex rules. A few had been lost or forgotten. It would have probably used many fewer public resources if I had been sent a letter instead of a tow truck.

>>3131s+Y9
I was towed for parking in a "driveway" in Minneapolis, except the "driveway" was a sidewalk cutout in front of what had at one point been a garage-type door in the side of a building right up against the sidewalk. Except the garage door had been bricked up so there was literally nothing anybody could do with the "driveway".

It was my secret spot to park because it was generally avoided, logically, there was no reason to prevent parking there. It worked for a while then I got towed. and "NO PARKING" was sprayed on the pavement shortly after. Sometimes you make a mark on the world.