Parking enforcement officers in this city sure can't wait to ticket you.

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I had to go downtown today, for me, it's a lot faster and easier to drive where I have to go, even if it's going to be rush hour by the time I'm heading home. So anyways, I drove downtown and needed to find a parking spot. I would have liked to have found a free spot, but that could have meant a long walk to where I had to go. One spot opened up about half a block from where I was going, so I took it. It was a paid spot, and if you didn't pay, you'd get a ticket. I sat for a few minutes getting my change together in order to feed the meter. I got out just as the officer was checking cars. He got to mine, saw that I had old tickets on my dash and was about to give me a ticket. I was at the machine paying for some time while he was doing this. I ran back and showed him that I just purchased time I needed, that I'd just gotten there. He walked off to give someone else a ticket. I'm glad it wasn't me, as I can't afford these parking tickets, I've had my share of them since I started driving. I think the ticket cost for parking without paying is something like $40, and you really can't dispute it if you didn't pay for it. While I was driving home, I noticed a woman get into her car, she was clearly angry that she'd gotten a ticket, but that's what you get if you think you can get away with parking for free where it's paid parking. These guys are so trigger happy it's unbelievable. I've seen people yelling at them for giving them a ticket when sometimes they deserve it. Hopefully for some people, it's a lesson learned.