Warning: Gotten a Boot and Tow Recently? Read This (Take Action)

Hi Larry, You said it all quite eloquently. As you, I anxiously await their reply.

By the way, our valiant warriors have been on the ‘warpath’ here in Queens, particularly Middle Village. Now, I understand that nobody likes to get a parking ticket. But in some cases, it is necessary. As you mentioned, parking in an unsafe area, like blocking a fire hydrant or in an area that disrupts traffic definitely warrants a ticket. (Keeping in mind the fact that tickets are supposed to punish the driver and teach him not to park illegally and not to raise money for the city.) I would also encourage tickets for double parking-not for a few minutes to pick up your kids in front of school, but to the idiots that leave their cars for extended periods of time especially in areas that create traffic problems. And also for parking meter violations-not for a minute or two which could be overlooked, and not where meters are foolishly placed in residential areas that fail to serve the purpose for which they were invented. That is, to allow businesses to provide services to different people.

That said, lately these traffic enforcement agents have been trolling our quiet blocks and looking for reasons to write tickets. They have been checking inspections and registration stickers-not exactly a serious offense that is causing any problems to people. And most absurdly, writing tickets to cars that are in their driveways but hanging over the sidewalk by a few inches. Unless the car is protruding enough to create a hazard for people walking by, this is another ridiculous reason to punish someone. (A friend of mine has 2 cars squeezed in his driveway and got a $115 ticket because part of his bumper-5 inches-was sticking out.

I believe a much better use of our warriors would be to enforce the gridlock law and ticket the idiot drivers that pull into intersections when there is no place to go and then block them when the light changes. Perhaps they could also be granted the right to give tickets to pedestrians for jay walking and crossing against the light. This would go hand-in-hand with our Mayors goal of reducing pedestrian injuries. And would make a ton of money for the city.

Hi Larry,
My car was lucky enough to be part of the boot & tow program. I think I can get the ticket off because it listed a required element incorrectly. If I do get the ticket dismissed on these grounds, will I be able to get the boot and tow refunded?

Thanks for the help!

Hello,

My wife was parked in front of our apartment building which is a No Parking M-F/7am-10am and was at her car at 7:09am. There was a parking ticket on the windshield but there was also a NYC enforcement office with a boot going towards her car. She yelled at them that she is moving the car, but the goon disregarded her and continued to attach the boot to her car. He was there for 10 minutes and during this whole time refused to not put the boot on or let my wife move the car. In the end he put the boot on, told my wife to call the phone number in college point to pay for the boot fee within 2 hours or else it will get towed. How is this legal? I can’t find any information online to dispute a boot fee and everywhere I read I see that a boot is justifiable if you owe $350 or more in tickets. She has NO tickets at all. Any suggestions of where I can complain? Does it make sense to try the Department of Consumer Affairs?

Just made an honest mistake and parked during work in a no parking zone – signs were hard to read (facing sidewalk behind me, the one I drove past and another posted up about 20 feet on a pole curved and 50 feet ahead of where I was parked).

Got it at 12:36, called at 2:35, had to get to the pound within an hour, had to pay $185 and now the parking ticket.

WTF?

Wow! I hate NYC’s parking ticket system. II just had my car booted, saw the judge the same day where she took all tickets out of judgement and even dismissed one. Called the boot release line who told me they were taken off the boot and waving all fees. When I got home the boot was still on my car and now untill I pay the boot fee and tickets the judge gave me 30 days to pay the boot will remain. And any time in the near future the car will be towed and sold. How can you take my car when there are no judgements? Help please.

Larry,

Thanks for this post. It’s helped me gather myself a bit after being royally screwed by this same situation.

I was booted for having $195 of unpaid parking tickets (2 tickets from the passed 3 months), even though the law has clearly stated $350 in unpaid parking tickets is towable. My car was, as you described booted and then towed just a few hours later, all while I was at work and defenseless.

I’m not looking to dispute the place I was parked, it was a M-F no parking zone, and I acknowledge and will pay the ticket for that, as well as my unpaid parking tickets – but I don’t see how the boot/tow is lawful at all as I do not have $350+ in parking tickets due…nor was I even able to spot the boot in the middle of the work day when I was in a different borough at my job.

Do you think I have a case for a refund here? What exactly is the law on unpaid parking amounts? How could the NYPD and Department of Finance both have jurisdiction over the same issue, and how could they both have separate rules about how much you have to owe to be booted/towed?

This happened to me last week. The two hour rule is absurd. I don’t even think it’s possible to get to the front of the line at the tow pound within two hours, and furthermore, the “wireless” boots which can be unlocked remotely are not used by NYPD traffic, but are feature afforded to the people who have 48 hours to pay. That makes no sense. The system is so backwards! Expensive lesson learned.

Thank you for this information! I emailed my councilmember and the mayor’s office to complain about this issue. Considering how egregious the boot & tow policy is it should get more attention and more people should complain.

Do you know if it’s possible to dispute the boot charge if the boot notice on the car contains illegible information? My car got booted then towed and ticketed – the ticket is valid, but the time listed on the boot notice they put on the car is difficult to read and also doesn’t match the boot time they listed on the redemption receipt. I can’t find any information about disputing just the boot fee, as opposed to disputing the parking ticket.

Thank you very much!

Larry,

My name is AJ Fiducia. I was caught in this trap this past Saturday April 2, 2016. My family and I drove into NYC and I parked my vehicle on 6th Avenue between 27th and 28th street. Unbeknownst to be the block is a commercial only zone between 7am and 7pm except Sunday’s. I parked in the middle of the block directly in front of parking payment machine. Paid for 2 hours of parking at 1103am and went to an appointment. I returned to the car at 1147am, 44 mins later and found not only a summons but a boot on the car as well. I was booted at 1144 am; notified of the two hour window and ran to pay the fine.

When I got back I made sure to look for the signs and what happened. There are two signs displayed on that block. One at each corner. They only say it’s a commercial zone; nothing about being booted. What really bothered me was I ran into the likely traffic cop who wrote the summons and he informed me that they have nothing to do with the “boot people” and he was sorry but I had to pay.

This to me wreaks of extortionist behavior.

I have not outstanding summonses and my car is brand new so all tags are current.

I would gladly lend my story in any effort to see this practice abolished.

Thanks in advance.

Hello,
I too was booted, ticketed and towed all within a 2 hour period. I am a NYC teacher who was parked next to my school with our NYC DOE badge. I did not realize that where i parked has a “Truck Loading Zone” sign. The reason i parked there is because the front of the school was blockaded by school buses used for the handicapped children within our school building. Had i waited for them all to unload i would have been late to teach my 1st class. I stepped out of the building that afternoon to realize that my car was gone. The clerk at the tow pound was less than helpful in explaining why i got towed, booted and ticketed. She explained that people with parking tickets in excess of $350 get booted- i have NO outstanding tickets that would qualify.
Today when i tried to explain this to a judge he found me guilty of parking in a Truck Zone. Another clerk at the Department of Finance explained that she agrees with me that this practice is extremely unfair; get thrice punished for the same offense.
Is there any justice here? I wrote an appeal but i doubt it will get a positive response. So much for teaching in NYC and trying to be on time to class..

Dear Larry,

I’ve just read through a dozen or some comments. It comforts me to see I’m not alone. Like everyone else I was ticketed, booted, and towed. Thanks for putting up this site and fighting a corrupt system.

Best,
Don

Hmm, I think I might actually try to start a petition on Change.org or a Facebook group on this issue.
I don’t think a ton of people have experienced the outrage after the City/NYPD tries TRIPLE DIP using the boot/tow/ticket method. I feel like it’s straight out of a mob movie.

So it happened to me this March. I guess the resistance hasn’t won yet, but I’ll be writing and calling every single civil servant department I can.

I’ll try to fight the ticket, as well.
Any recommendations for paying a website/lawyer to fight my ticket??
Thank you for your help and website!

Hey Larry,

Amazing site. It’s nice to know others are outraged. I have 2 bogus parking tickets I am planning on disputing but haven’t opened cases for yet. I went to move my car at 8:10am yesterday from a quiet block with 8am-7pm M-F truck loading and found the boot and a $95 ticket. I was appalled as I thought like many others this could only happen for those who owe more than $350, my total now stands at $240. Looks like this line from your article applies to me: “Vehicles with $101 in judgment debt for unpaid parking tickets and issuance of a parking violation can be booted or towed”. Well you live and you learn…. I rushed over and just barely got there in time before they towed my car. The street was empty when I came back no trucks loading anything. Seems like my car was not a nuisance whatsoever so I find it really terrible that I was swindled for $185 dollars under threat of impound and being charged andadditional $185…. all because of a $95 dollar ticket. All this also under the assumption that my car was causing a “hazard to public safety”. Furthermore I’m unemployed and currently have no income coming in to pay these tickets, for which now I owe $325. Is there a 4th post in this series, or any update in the past couple years? I’ll likely seek out your teams help with these other tickets. For one of the tickets I was guaranteed by a crossing guard cop on the upper west side that it was ok to park where I was (I made him clarify 2 or 3 times, “yea you should be good there”) and returned 25 min later to shrugs from him and a $115 ticket. Turns out the bus stop, which I had parked all the way at the far end of the block away from, prohibited parking on the entire block and not just in the bus stop area. The cop told me I could take photos and dispute it online. I didn’t notice my error because there was no parking sign, the regulation was displayed on the bus stop sign itself (I had no idea these bus stop signs also displayed parking regulations!?) My other ticket was on a heavy traffic gridlock day I was bullied out of being able to cross through the intersection by two right turning vans passing through their turns after the light had turned red for them, and I was left in the middle of the intersection when the light changed. A cop walked up didn’t say a word and scanned my registration printed the ticket and handed it to me despite my pleas and explanations as to what had happened saying I was obstructing traffic. I call it NYC driving tax. Sigh.. Thanks Larry, glad to know someone out here is fighting for us.

Hey Larry , so I heard back from Department of Finance they said the case was closed and I was contacted which I never was unreal ! I opened up another case and they closed that one as well .I feel dealing with the city is impossible just make sure people on this group are aware that they will boot your vehicle the same day even if you don’t owe any back summones . I think it’s time to move down south where none of this is an issue . Thank You for letting me vent on this situation . KC