Able-bodied woman has car towed for parking in a handicapped spot – but turns out she’s the victim
By David Menzies for MSN Autos
When it comes to traffic violations, there’s one triple-X motoring faux-pas that I have absolutely zero tolerance for: an able-bodied driver who parks in a handicapped spot. This is so against the code – not of being a driver, but of being a human being. Indeed, there is but one suitable punishment is for such an offender – and that is for a pair of Wilson Trap Doors to spring open, sending the able-bodied loogan straight to Hell.
However, I’m going to give a special exemption to Hila Ben-Baruch, a Tel Aviv student who thought she was safe to leave her car parked in a legal parking spot on the street near her apartment building last Sunday. You see, when Hila returned in the evening, her car had been towed. Turns out the spot her car had occupied was a handicapped spot. Or, more accurately, it was turned into a handicapped spot thanks to new lines and new signage that had been put in place after Hila parked her car.
“I have parked on that street for nearly half a year, [I live there] and know well where I can and can’t park,” she wrote on her Facebook page according to the Times of Israel.
Hila called the city to find out how her car could have been towed from a once-legal parking spot in a matter of hours with no advance warning. Instead, she was accused of knowingly parking in a handicapped spot and told she’d have to pay 1,350 shekels — or about $365 — in towing and violation fees.
On Monday, she went to the building across from where she’d parked with the hope there might be security camera footage to prove her innocence. She was in luck. Footage proving her innocence did indeed exist.
Viewing the footage, she said she didn’t know whether to “cry or scream.”
Tel Aviv’s mayor has since apologized for the incident and said it had all been a mistake; the fines were waved.
As for those Tel Aviv workers who changed the status of Hila’s parking space without her knowledge and then had her car towed…. how do you say “moron” in Hebrew?
Justin Couture
Mark Atkinson
John LeBlanc
Posted by: Ford St Louis | 2013-02-08 5:34:32 AM
She was lucky it was captured on camera. The workers painting the lines should have known/noticed her car and made sure it wasn't ticketed. Over $300 is a big ticket...