Ticket at the harbor—venting

Just tried to enjoy some time out of the house this afternoon with a visit to the beach in front of Crow’s Nest to cast a few times in the surf. There were plenty of open parking spots, so I took one near the harbor master building.

I have a yearly car top pass, and you are supposed to park in spots labeled “visitor” with the labels painted on the curbs. Maybe I wasn’t my usual highly intelligent self, but I read the word “visitor” on the curb of my spot with my own eyes.

Get back to my car feeling better and more optimistic about life after what has been a stretch of rough health. Post op was just yesterday, and removal of some medical gear and sutures left me with a fresh round of blood and pain but feeling optimistic. Getting out on the beach was great.

And there was the ticket. Sixty dollars. Guess I failed to notice a sign a few spots down. Guess I didn’t understand I was supposed to figure out that a half-ass paint-over was supposed to stop me from reading the word “visitor.”

It was too late to go to the office. What part of your humanity do you need to lose to not just write a note or a warning in that situation?! Obviously I’m happy to pay to park or I wouldn’t have spent hundreds of dollars on a pass.

I’m in disbelief and I’m not. They just aren’t the good guys in this situation. I want to say awful things to whatever clown wrote the ticket. When law-abiding people interact with this kind of thing, it turns you against them. Guess I will spend my time typing back, filling out their form, and trying not to spit on the floor at the sight of their soulless eyes.

Was finally feeling better and they ruined it to get more money out of me. They aren’t your friend; just people who can’t get a better job that requires actual thinking.

Needed to get that out. Freaking A

Pic

And I’m probably being too nice.

Pretty sure the meter maid who wrote the ticket doesn’t return their shopping cart at the grocery store.

If I were you, I would contest the ticket! If you are able to park in the visitor spots, take more photos and challenge it, if you have time.

After checking around more carefully when it was too late, it appears they painted over “visitors” on a bunch of spots some years ago and the paint job is going away. I don’t even feel like I made an honest mistake. It’s more accurate to say poor maintenance/upkeep led to confusing and conflicting signage. I sure am going to contest it.


But if they actually gave a crap, I bet they would have done a better job making it clear where to park or not. Dealt with them before, and it’s like interacting with people who have been trained in gaslighting you and telling themselves they had no choice. Really takes away some of your faith in humanity.

That sucks. You have the pics to contest it. Hope you heal up well and get back in the saddle.

Thanks for saying “that sucks”  JoeDubC; exactly the target species I was fishing for.

I would definitely contest the ticket to let them know they need to repaint or not issue the ticket.  You cound prvent other people from tickets.

A few years ago, I got a parking fine at the harbor. It was a busy day, and I didn't pay before launching. Since it was a busy day, when I landed, there was a guy wandering around taking payments, which is convenient, as it saves lining up in the harbormaster office. So I handed him the paper ticket that had been placed on my windshield and paid in cash. I did not think to ask for a receipt.

A couple of weeks later, I got a letter in the mail, saying that I had failed to pay on that specific (busy) day, and that I now had to pay a fine. I disputed it via mail, explaining the situation, with copies of receipts for many other nearby days to show that I always do pay. I didn't hear anything more, so about a while later, I went into the harbormaster's office to see what was going on. It seems that they don't have much to do with the collection process, but they did try to look up the source of the fine in their files. Apparently, they had lost the original paper ticket that was placed on my windshield, so they voided the fine then and there.

Of course, that was s different situation, but I would suggest talking to the people in the harbormaster's office (as politely as possible...) and explain the situation. It seems to me that in addition to the poor signage, the fact that you have an annual pass should count for something...

totally blows, vent well earned.

Got them to void the ticket, which is great.

It went exactly as I expected and hoped it wouldn’t though. The very first thing the officer in uniform told me was that it doesn’t say the word “visitor” there. I had my photo and the spot is right in front of the harbor master’s office so I said let’s go walk over. I told them the one thing I was afraid of that kept me up overnight was that they would tell me that it didn’t say what it actually said that I read with my own eyes.

Do these people get some kind of training on how to lie to your face? I mentioned the gaslighting in an earlier post on this thread, and I was spot on fricking spot on.

The other non-uniformed employee there obviously could see that this was a total joke and I’m so glad I chose the right words to make it clear that this was ridiculous because the uniform one made the best effort to get me to doubt my own eyes and just pay up.

It wasn’t until the absolute end of the interaction that she actually admitted that yeah some of the signs aren’t well kept up, which was the whole point of this thing.

Nice you got it straighten out and sorry to hear it took some time and effort to deal with this lame ticket.

Glad they made it right, even if you literally had to take them outside to show the situation.

Are those actual police officers, and is that public property?

Sucks to have to justify what is so simply obvious and probably has been an issue before.  Glad it was resolved, albeit you deserve more for the stress you had to endure.