A COUPLE have been left fuming after they were hit with a parking ticket as part of a sudden crackdown.
Jillian and Jody Shealy were slapped with parking penalties while attending their children’s sports practices.
The couple from Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, faced a fine of $125 CAD ($92 USD).
They weren’t the only ones, with roughly a dozen other cars handed tickets, all while parked in a usual spot next to the Scotiabank South Turf, per a CBC report.
Jillian claimed parking enforcement officers “were coming back every hour on the hour to catch new people”.
She believed they were likely trying to catch parents who are known to park in the area when the parking lot next to the field fills up.
Parents have long parked on the side of the driveway without issue as it doesn’t have any posted “fire lane” signs.
But now, after years of using the driveway as overflow parking, everyone was caught off guard finding fines under their windshield wipers.
The new fines informed the drivers that they were in fact parked in a fire lane despite no signage being in the area.
Under the fire lane bylaw, all vehicles need to be “spaced no less than 25 metres apart”.
“It just quite honestly seemed like a money grab from middle-class people,” Jillian said.
“It’s a very ugly thing to do to tax-paying citizens.”
“If you have any respect for your citizens, launch a warning campaign,” she added, highlighting that no one knew it was a fire lane.
Nathan Doucette, Transit and Parking Operations supervisor for the City of Fredericton, said: “I’m not sure why exactly those signs are missing.
“It could be because of vandalism. It could be because they’re missing or stolen.
“If there’s any deficiencies, we’ll make sure that we get that looked at immediately.”
Doucette added that the city is likely to review its signage – to help ensure that it is up to date.
“We want to keep what’s deemed as a fire lane 100% accessible to fire and emergency vehicles.
“Because in the case of a Grant-Harvey, where you could have several thousand people attend an event, we want to make sure that the safety of communities is the number one priority.”
Currently, there are multiple fire lane signs like this one along the driveway next to the Scotiabank South Turf, on one side of the street.
Doucette also said that there’s lots of parking near recreational areas, but that “it just may not be right next to the field that you want to be at and may not be right next to the building you need to be at.”
He added: “We just ask that if you are going to park, you just be mindful of signage, be mindful of where you’re parking.
“That way, in case we have an emergency, we can get the emergency vehicles in there and not have to worry about people being illegally parked.”
The Shealys believe the fines were a heavy-handed approach and said they’ll be fighting the ticket.
They said: “We’re certainly the type of people that like to fly under the radar and not speed, not park in places we’re not supposed to park.
“But when you don’t even know that you’re doing something wrong, that’s, I think, just the unfairness of it all.”
Municipal bylaw fines related to parking brought in more than $380,000 last year, according to GardaWorld and City of Fredericton staff.
How to spot a fake parking ticket
Thieves sometimes go to great lengths to squeeze money from drivers
With parking ticket scams on the rise, it’s important to know how to tell the difference between a bogus ticket and a legitimate one.
Many parking enforcement agencies, like those employed by cities, will never ask people to pay for their tickets via apps like Venmo, PayPal, or Zelle.
A QR code should always make drivers cautious, as many times they lead to fake payment websites built by scammers to access banking or personal information.
It’s also wise to pay close attention to logos, as some scammers will even use fake logos close enough to a city’s official logo fooling those who don’t look closely.
Emails or text messages regarding parking citations should always be ignored, as most parking enforcement agencies will never use those mediums to collect a debt.
Other helpful tips for spotting false citations:
- Do some research on the lot you’re parking in, as signs are legally required to be posted to inform drivers on who is enforcing parking rules.
- Carefully examine the citation for any flaws – misspellings, incorrect logos, links, QR codes, etc.
- Evaluate the contact information on the ticket. Websites that belong to cities will always end in either .gov.
- Finally, pay with a card, as disputing an illegal charge is easier. Avoid mailing checks or cash to a suspect parking ticket.
- Look at a city’s ticketing database to double-check that you’ve been cited by an official.
Source: CBS affiliate WHNT
