It appears as though someone in our police department is trying to justify their job with BOGUS parking tickets. I came home today to find a parking ticket on one of my cars that was parked on my property in my “proper” parking pad area (I don’t have a garage). The ticket was issued for “storage of an inoperable vehicle.” This vehicle that the ticket was issued on is a vehicle in good working condition, runs, was not on blocks or anything, didn’t have any flat tires or anything, was not covered up with a car cover or anything and was parked in the same fashion as the other vehicles on my parking pad, the registration is up to date, has plates and a village sticker. This vehicle was just parked there three days ago so it is not like it has been sitting there for weeks or months without moving.
I don’t think they should have a right to issue parking tickets for a vehicle parked on private property, but they do. If it was a ticket that was warranted that is something else, but this was issued on a vehicle that runs, is licensed, has a village sticker and license plates and was only parked in that spot for three days. I have had this vehicle for about eight years, and it has been parked on my property for those eight years (although in a slightly different spot). Apparently you are not allowed to change where you park a vehicle on your own property. Once you park it in one spot, you can never move it to a different spot or else you will get a parking ticket. The reason this vehicle was moved and parked in a different spot on my property three days ago is because I have visitors this week and needed room for their car, so I moved that vehicle over to make room for their car. I am sure several of my neighbors could verify my story and also that the car was just moved there and has not been sitting there for weeks or months because due the fact that it is parked in a different spot than where it is normally is parked on my property.
Since my taxes pay for this person to have a job to issue tickets on my property, does that give me the right to terminate or reprimand the person that issued a bogus ticket? I don’t think so! I do hope there is someone at the police department that will look into this practice of issuing bogus tickets. If the police department is that desperate for funds, perhaps you could take up a collection from the citizens instead of issuing bogus tickets to law abiding citizens. I would be happy do donate money but I am not going to pay for a bogus ticket. Better yet, you could terminate the person issuing these bogus tickets and that would save I’m guessing $50,000 to $60,000 a year, every year for the village not to mention the pension and retirement benefit savings.
I would like to say I am sorry to the police department for having to write this letter. Don’t get me wrong, I am not bashing the police department in any way as a whole and I am very proud of the work the police department does in terms of stopping crime and keeping our village safe! I think they do a great job overall and am grateful to them for keeping our village safe and I read the crime section every week to see what kind of “bad guys” they have taken off of our streets that week. I am sure that virtually all of the village police are doing a stand up job but there is one individual that is not!
You can be rest assured that I will fight this ticket and have taken photos of how that vehicle and the other vehicles on my property were parked.
I am writing this letter to bring this matter to the police department so that this doesn’t continue to happen and also if there are other residents in which this is happening too. If there is anyone else in the village that is getting these bogus tickets, I would encourage you to fight them as well. Take pictures and get statements from your neighbors if you can to support your defense. I wonder if I will be able to issue the village a bill for the time I am going to have to take off of work to fight this ticket??
P.S. I can’t help wondering what I am going to do when I go on vacation because if you can “apparently” only have a vehicle parked for two days w/o getting a ticket then I am at a loss as to how to avoid more tickets. Maybe I will just leave the keys in it so that when this individual stops to issue another ticket, they can start it up, drive it around (to make sure it is operable and then take it to the impound yard to verify there are no other code violations! I do ask though that when you bring it back and park it on my property, that you park it in a different spot so that when you drive past again in two days that you don’t mistake it for an improperly stored vehicle!
An extremely concerned but proud Forest Park resident
