# You parked your car illegally and you are in it cause you're dead? TICKET FOR YOU! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 6, 2009, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933 "2009-06-06T16:33:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2009, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/21 "2009-06-06T19:19:11Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Well, if he was in the back seat, presumably they just thought he was taking a nap. They just forgot the “dirt” part. Heh- sleeping in your car is generally believed to be illegal around here. It may not actually be against the law, but you will get hassled for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2009, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/22 "2009-06-06T19:37:47Z")
I wish to point out that tickets link to the vehicle and not the person in it. They really don’t care who’s sitting in it watching them ticket the vehicle. This cop obviously has the dead beat and knows they can’t be assigned worse. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2009, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/23 "2009-06-06T19:43:15Z")
By the way if you think this is pathetic here is a worse case from this year of the ignored death. [Dead Detroit man ignored.](http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090128/METRO08/901280491) ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2009, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/24 "2009-06-06T20:12:39Z")
I saw a small van parked in back of a tax service in my neighborhood,for about 3 weeks I saw a cop and told her about it. She did not want to go 3 blocks and check it out. She said call it in. She was in a cop car. She could have done it. So I called the police department. They asked if I owned it. Otherwise I had no standing to ask them to check. The owner of the tax service has to call. It has now been there a month. He may be dead in the office. It may be a stolen car. It is relatively new. They do not want to do the work. I give up. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2009, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/25 "2009-06-06T20:28:43Z")
Something about this smells funny to me… ---
**Author:** ![mischievous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mischievous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mischievous)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2009, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/26 "2009-06-06T20:35:42Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > “Sir, we’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is, we found the car you reported stolen last month. The bad news is, we’ve impounded it for unpaid parking tickets.” I know you’re joking, but it’s not far from the truth. The NYPD tried to charge me for two months’ storage fees after they had (1) mistakenly towed my car, (2) lost the record of having done so, (3) denied towing it when I asked them, forcing me to report it stolen, and (4) attempted to sell it at auction as an abandoned car. I only found out where it was when the auction house ran the VIN number. Fortunately, the judge agreed that the original tow had been illegal, and so they had to give it back to me for free. ---
**Author:** ![Dog80](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6bbea6/32.png) [@Dog80](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dog80)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2009, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/27 "2009-06-06T21:39:50Z")
That reminds me several years ago when the terrorist organization [November 17](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutionary_Organization_17_November) had left the stolen car they had previously used for an attack [double parked](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_parking) on some major street in downtown Athens. The car went unnoticed for at least a month. The funniest part was that the car had still the improvised rocket launcher that was used for the attack tied with string on the roof rack :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2009, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/28 "2009-06-06T22:06:08Z")
My favorite in this genre is when I lived in the Quad Cities (Iowa-Illinois) and one of the area police departments auctioned off unclaimed towed vehicles. Someone bought a pickup truck whose bed was filled with debris. When they cleaned it out they found two dead bodies (true story). Oops. Second favorite tale from that era - a local reporter decided to do a feature on a police sharpshooting team, and got them to all line up opposite him with guns drawn for a dynamic photo op. One of the cops pulled the trigger at the moment the photo was being taken, thinking his gun was unloaded. Which it wasn’t. Fortunately he wasn’t all that good a marksman. When the sharpshooting team photo was published in the newspaper, for some reason the cop in question had an odd grin on his face. Hmmm. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2009, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/29 "2009-06-06T23:30:17Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > “Sir, we’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is, we found the car you reported stolen last month. The bad news is, we’ve impounded it for unpaid parking tickets.” Truth is stranger than fiction. When I was living in Pittsburgh, my car was stolen. I reported it to the police. Several days later, they told me that they had found it sitting in Schenley Park with the window smashed. It had accumulated three parking tickets. And yes, I had to pay them. Another anecdote: Some years ago, my mom’s car was stolen. Somebody had apparently taken it for a joy ride and left it in a “bad neighborhood” in Queens. The people in the neighborhood called the police and told them “There’s a Mercedes sitting on the street with a smashed window. Nobody around here has a Mercedes. Something’s not right.” The police declined to look into it. So they called again. And again. I don’t remember exactly how the police eventually put it together or how she found out the details on what happened. But she got her car back. And for what it’s worth, it was parked in that “bad neighborhood” with a smashed window for at least 3 days. The radio was still there, and from the looks of it, nobody had even entered the car. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2009, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/30 "2009-06-07T00:25:50Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > One of the cops pulled the trigger at the moment the photo was being taken, thinking his gun was unloaded. Which it wasn’t. How long did he stay on the team after that? ---
**Author:** ![SweetLucy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bcef8e/32.png) [@SweetLucy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SweetLucy)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2009, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/31 "2009-06-07T01:07:21Z")
What a deadbeat! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2009, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/32 "2009-06-07T02:13:48Z")
> [@EJsGirl](#): > > They can look inside a car and act on anything in plain sight, IIRC. > > Pathetic. Well before we throw the meter maids to the lions, look at the link. The vehicle is a mini van with tinted rear windows. It quite likely has three rows of seats, the report just says back seat, does not mention 2nd or 3rd row. Assuming the body was in the third row, it would be very hard to see. ---
**Author:** ![PetW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@PetW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PetW)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2009, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/33 "2009-06-07T03:07:05Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Otherwise he’ll be in tuh-_rouble!_ Uh… I don’t get it. Is this a pun? ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2009, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/34 "2009-06-07T04:46:39Z")
Gentlemen and Dopers: How dare you call the judgment of our police department into question! Do you not realize the years of training required to ignore the sight of a corpse on the back seat? Just think. If our police department actually had to see everything going on in our fair city, they might have to arrest people and our economy would suffer as our prisons filled and our bling sales plummeted. So please do not insult our finest, and remember that someday you might get the undisturbed rest this lucky person did. Sincerely, John Q. Quigglesworth (Deceased) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2009, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/35 "2009-06-07T04:49:18Z")
> [@PetW](#): > > Uh… I don’t get it. Is this a pun? Well, he’s dead. What can they do to him if he doesn’t pay the tickets? ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2009, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/36 "2009-06-07T07:25:04Z")
Oh he’s not dead. He’s resting. He’s pining for the fjords. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2009, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/37 "2009-06-07T14:23:43Z")
Fjord? I thought it might be a Djodge. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2009, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/38 "2009-06-07T14:44:42Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Well, he’s dead. What can they do to him if he doesn’t pay the tickets? They can confiscate his car! That’ll teach him. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2009, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/39 "2009-06-07T15:39:03Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > Well before we throw the meter maids to the lions, look at the link. The vehicle is a mini van with tinted rear windows. It quite likely has three rows of seats, the report just says back seat, does not mention 2nd or 3rd row. > Assuming the body was in the third row, it would be very hard to see. Around here, window tint isn’t supposed to be opaque, but I agree that he might have been difficult to see. Of course, if he had been driving his own car and been reported missing, maybe this would have been solved quickly. Oh wait, that’s right, the cops wouldn’t run the plate until the van had at least four tickets on it… :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2009, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/40 "2009-06-07T17:57:27Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Well, he’s dead. What can they do to him if he doesn’t pay the tickets? In Chicago, they could take away his voting privileges. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933.md?page=3)