# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/41 "2009-06-08T09:55:36Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > I hear the accumulated fines could bury him. This is a very grave concern. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/42 "2009-06-08T19:22:38Z")
Where I live, parking tickets are generated by a little hand-held computerized device that the officer keys information into. The ticket includes the VIN, which I had always assumed was gotten from the DMV database, rather than being read off the front inside window (although I could be mistaken). Either way, the computer has the information, so it _ought_ to just be automatically run to check for theft/outstanding warrants/whatever. Are the cities that are not doing this using a different system to issue parking tickets, or are they really so incompetent that they already have the information in electronic form but can’t manage to connect one database to another to find obviously stolen cars? ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/43 "2009-06-08T19:33:19Z")
If this happened to me I raise a fuss loud enough to wake the . . . Oh, wait a minute. Someone should undertake to find out just what happened; imcompetence like this should not be left to fester. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Bird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Little\_Bird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Bird)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/44 "2009-06-08T19:33:53Z")
Didn’t they already do this on [Castle](http://castletv.net/episodes/a-death-in-the-family)? You guys watch Castle, right? ---
**Author:** ![Frustrated\_Wonderer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a4c791/32.png) [@Frustrated\_Wonderer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frustrated_Wonderer)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/45 "2009-06-08T19:38:40Z")
“Whatcha gon, whatcha gon, watcha gonna do when they come for you? Bad boys, bad boys…” ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/46 "2009-06-08T19:38:56Z")
> [@mischievous](#): > > Fails to surprise me. The block I was on in NYC seemed to be a dumping ground for stolen cars for a while (this was in the East Village). We’d have a car show up with a flat tire and a broken window, then sit there collecting tickets for months on end. > > Then one day, there were three of these abandoned cars on the block taking up space and I had spent nearly a half hour trying to find a legal space for my car, and I totally lost my temper. I was watching a policewoman, bored out of her mind, stick yet another ticket on the huge pile of tickets on a car sitting in front of a hydrant, and I confronted her. I asked if she thought anyone in their right mind would leave a car to accumulate thousands of dollars in tickets and if she given a smidgen of a thought to checking out the car. She responded that when the tickets became more than four months overdue, a search would be run automatically. I asked her to indulge me and run the damn plates. > > She comes back out of the police car, looking totally shocked. “This car WAS STOLEN!” Yes, I reply, and probably that one over there, and that one down the block that also has thirty tickets on it. > > After that, the police started making regular scans of my block. I hope they scan every car that gets more than two tickets in the same spot now. That’s just stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/47 "2009-06-08T20:41:34Z")
> [@EJsGirl](#): > > Around here, window tint isn’t supposed to be opaque… Maybe they can write him a ticket for that, too. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/48 "2009-06-08T20:51:45Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Maybe they can write him a ticket for that, too. They’ve got him dead to rights on that one. ---
**Author:** ![smee\_goan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f07891/32.png) [@smee\_goan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smee_goan)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/49 "2009-06-08T22:37:37Z")
What did one necrophiliac say to the other? Let’s crack open a cold one. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/50 "2009-06-08T23:09:58Z")
I keep reading the title in the Soup Nazi’s voice. Wouldn’t the Soup Nazi make a great big city parking policeman? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/51 "2009-06-08T23:28:50Z")
Fuckin’ scofflaw. Throw him in jail 'til he rots! ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2009, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/52 "2009-06-09T00:19:50Z")
> [@EJsGirl](#): > > 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: You had better look at the side windows on a mini van the next time you are out and about. They come from the factory in limo tint or darker. Being side windows there is no regulation as to how dark they can bee. ---
**Author:** ![threemae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f9b8f/32.png) [@threemae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/threemae)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2009, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/53 "2009-06-09T00:49:53Z")
Realistically, what’s the alternative here? Would ya’ll appreciate a policy wherein it becomes police policy that they must look into every car they ticket on the off chance that there’s a dead body laying in there? Obviously this will slow down the meter maids, so the city and ultimately the tax-payers will have to pay to hire more meter maids to carry out the usually very fruitless effort of looking into the back-seats of cars for dead bodies. That’s not necessarily how I want my tax dollars spent, but if it gets just one dead body located in three weeks instead of two, it’s worth it right? But I would propose that the situation to play out would be this: meter maids locate naughty-looking things far more often than corpses. If a cop sees a bong or other drug paraphernalia in a parked car, shouldn’t they break it open and search it? What about all of the other illegal looking things that would grant them probable cause to go opening cars? Are you guys going to appreciate all of the searches of unattended cars? Maybe it really is best just to have cops ticket cars without looking inside. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2009, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/54 "2009-06-09T00:53:06Z")
When you see cars abandoned by the side of the highway here (as I had to do once with a flat, myself) they get these orange tags, the kind that you have to take off with damned nail polish remover, that says you better come get it in 24 hours. I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that they were beginning that because of an abandoned car by the side of the road with a corpse in it for some absurd length of time. (I’m sure they do look in your windows when you put that tag on.) ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2009, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/55 "2009-06-09T00:56:18Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > You had better look at the side windows on a mini van the next time you are out and about. They come from the factory in limo tint or darker. Being side windows there is no regulation as to how dark they can bee. You’re right- I just went out and looked at the passenger and back windows of my 2009 Toyota Sequoia, and they are pretty dark. A casual glance would result in someone’s own reflection, nothing more. Only when someone “peers” in using their hands, can they see details inside the car. Well, I’ll be damned- ignorance fought. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2009, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/56 "2009-06-09T01:18:07Z")
> [@EJsGirl](#): > > You’re right- I just went out and looked at the passenger and back windows of my 2009 Toyota Sequoia, and they are pretty dark. A casual glance would result in someone’s own reflection, nothing more. Only when someone “peers” in using their hands, can they see details inside the car. Well, I’ll be damned- ignorance fought. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![legalsnugs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@legalsnugs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/legalsnugs)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2009, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/57 "2009-06-09T15:09:24Z")
> [@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.” Just as bad: My daughter’s car was stolen. A month later she’s notified that her car is in the impound lot and she needs to come get it. When she arrives, she’s given a $300 bill for “storage”!! What?!? The cops had actually found the car the day after it was stolen, but neglected to do anything further about it for a month! All they had to do was look up her tag - she’d reported the car stolen; the cops knew her phone number and address. But she still had to pay the bill to get her car back. What a scam! :mad: ---
**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 9, 2009, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/58 "2009-06-09T15:24:56Z")
> [@threemae](#): > > Realistically, what’s the alternative here? Would ya’ll appreciate a policy wherein it becomes police policy that they must look into every car they ticket on the off chance that there’s a dead body laying in there? Obviously this will slow down the meter maids, so the city and ultimately the tax-payers will have to pay to hire more meter maids to carry out the usually very fruitless effort of looking into the back-seats of cars for dead bodies. That’s not necessarily how I want my tax dollars spent, but if it gets just one dead body located in three weeks instead of two, it’s worth it right? > > But I would propose that the situation to play out would be this: meter maids locate naughty-looking things far more often than corpses. If a cop sees a bong or other drug paraphernalia in a parked car, shouldn’t they break it open and search it? What about all of the other illegal looking things that would grant them probable cause to go opening cars? Are you guys going to appreciate all of the searches of unattended cars? > > Maybe it really is best just to have cops ticket cars without looking inside. Looking in a vehicle that is getting a ticket would take almost no time. It’s not like they need to look under the floor mats or in the glove compartment for a person. Anybody leaving drug paraphernalia in view through a window should have the station called and a drug search done. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2009, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/59 "2009-06-09T16:52:53Z")
> [@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. It’s a car… I believe you mean \*Naugahyde \*nap. 😃 > [@Little\_Bird](#): > > Didn’t they already do this on [Castle](http://castletv.net/episodes/a-death-in-the-family)? You guys watch Castle, right? That was my first thought, too. (My main problem with that episode was they way everyone was leaning over the week-old, heat-marinated corpse and not, you know, gagging.) ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2009, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-parked-your-car-illegally-and-you-are-in-it-cause-youre-dead-ticket-for-you/498933/60 "2009-06-09T17:10:07Z")
Personally, I wouldn’t be caught dead in a minivan. [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=2) [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=4)