Brooklyn, NY - Bogus 'No Parking' Sign

Brooklyn, NY - Several Brooklyn residents woke up to find their street empty -- because someone had posted a No Parking sign and police had towed their vehicles.

The sign, which bans parking on a street in the DUMBO neighborhood from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays, mysteriously appeared Monday or Tuesday, and then police started ticketing and towing cars parked there.

But the Department of Transportation says there aren't any parking restrictions in the area and it doesn't know who posted the placard, which looks official.
Resident David Bourgeois said he had to pay $205 to retrieve his Mini Cooper, with a $60 ticket on the windshield, from a police pound after it was hauled away. "It's just outrageous," he said.

The DOT said it would "try" to dismiss the ticket -- and take down the No Parking sign.


U/D: 09/03/06
But now the Department of Transportation threw it into reverse.
The agency now says it did indeed install the sign a week ago, meaning the parking restrictions are in effect - and people like Bourgeois are out of luck.
His $60 ticket will not be dismissed. And the $205 in tow charges, per car, will not be refunded, DOT spokeswoman Kay Sarlin said.

"This is amazing," Bourgeois, 38, a freelance writer, said. "They don't know what they are doing. I wonder if they are going to come up with another story."