My girlfriend called me yesterday, and as soon as I answered the phone I could tell something was wrong. The way she greeted me wasn’t the same; the tone, the energy — it was off. “I just got scammed, and I feel so stupid” she told me, her voice a bit shaky. “What’s going on? What happened?” I inquired, ready to spring into action any way I could. Then she told me, and I was pissed. So here I am writing this article to make sure this doesn’t happen to you, dear readers.
I realize this may seem like a “big city” problem, but actually, pay-to-park surface lots are pretty much all over the country (especially during sporting events), often with big A-frame signs out front reading: “$20 ALL DAY” or something like that. There’s usually an attendant who takes your money and gives you a ticket, and then the social contract states that this attendant must guard your vehicle with their life. That’s an unwritten rule that everyone universally agrees on. But someone on Sunday broke this rule in LA, dooming them to — I would think — at least a few years in purgatory.
“I was meeting a friend at a vintage clothing show in the fashion district in downtown LA,” my girlfriend, whom we’re going to refer to as Elise, told me. “”Normally I park in the building underground garage, but last time I parked there, they stacked the cars and asked me to leave my key. Plus it was $30.”
“So I went to a surface lot instead,” she continued. These types of lots are common in LA, especially downtown during the Auto show or during Lakers games. “There was a sign that said $10 parking. There was an attendant with tickets. I pulled in; he directed me to park in a specific place. He put a ticket on a window. I paid him, then left.” She noted that many other women who were attending the same clothing show had also parked in the same lot.
The clothing show went great. Elise got to see a lot of cool vintage clothing, she bought some things, she met some nice new people who were running the booths, she had lunch with her friend— it was just a pleasant Sunday morning. But then it wasn’t. “About four hours later, I go back to my [Lexus RX350], and it’s on a tow truck.” The parking “attendant” had apparently taken the “proof of payment” ticket off her windscreen, because it was nowhere to be found.
“I was confused. I’d paid for parking. When I talked to the [tow truck operator] and realized I’d gotten scammed, I felt embarrassed and shocked. I felt that feeling when you get when someone take advantage of you,” she told me. The car was still in the same spot where Elise had left it, but its front wheels had been lifted by the truck. “I had to pay $297 for him to drop my car… to do a ‘field drop,’ even though he literally hadn’t moved my car an inch. He just had the two wheels up.”
“I also felt bad for the women whose cars got towed. I think [the tow truck operator] said he’d towed 10 cars already. I felt lucky that my car wasn’t towed; at least I didn’t have to pay over $500 and then Uber to some impound lot.” Apparently, this type of scam isn’t rare. “[The tow truck operator] said this happens a lot. These guys will put on what look like parking lot attendant vests when they know there are events nearby, and do this,” she said.
I did a bit of googling, and indeed, this is a big problem. Here’s a post on Reddit titled “Fake Parking Attendant/Parking Ticket Scam” describing a similar incident in Chicago:
Damn it, they got me. And I’m normally really good about this shit. Was going with the wife to a Lizzo concert in Chicago, pull off of I-55 onto Madison heading towards the United Center. As we pull closer, about 1.5 miles or so, I notice two similarly dressed individuals in high vis vests, hats, gloves and other official looking decorations, virtually indistinguishable from other parking attendants at first glance. One is standing in the sidewalk while the other is stopping vehicles. He comes up to us and asks:
“Going to the Lizzo concert?”
“Yes.”
“OK, $20 for regular parking and $40 for easy access at the United Center”
Traffic is moving, the guy is motioning other vehicles to move around and otherwise operating in a very calm and conspicuous manner.
I go:
“OK we’ll take the $20 parking”
He places a card way in the front of our dash and tells us to “keep this in your window”
We approach the United Center, guys looks at us funny, we then reach over to hand him the card and as we look at it, it just has the number “20” handwritten on the back of a Chanel card.
Reported it to the police after being on hold for 20 minutes and they don’t care, of course. I knew I wasn’t going to get my money back, but I at least wanted to warn others about this.
FYI If you ever see these scammers and happen catch them in time, feel free to deal with them as you please! They likely have lots of ill-gotten cash on them, they’ll likely not report you for your acts of social rectification and even if they do Chicago PD doesn’t care.
Here’s a screenshot of another Reddit post about an incident in Philadelphia:
Here’s the Cincinnati Police asking for help identifying such an alleged scammer:
CBS News had a long article on this in September of 2022, quoting a number of people who had been similarly scammed. Here’s an example:
This scheme has been happening for years at other sporting venues too. Karl Rojek fell victim to the scam last year when he went to the United Center for a Blackhawks game.
“He puts the permit in my window. Waves me to the next guy. The next guy parks me over on the side of the street,” said Rojek. “Cops everywhere. That’s why it seems legitimate. I mean you wouldn’t think twice about parking there.”
He got stuck with a $75 parking ticket.
“Came out after the Blackhawks game. I had a parking ticket from the City of Chicago,” said Rojek. “I walked down the line just to see if it was just me or not. Every single car that parked there, had a ticket.”
I’ve reached out to Joe’s Auto Parks, who runs the lot where my girlfriend was scammed. They initially told me they’d help: “If they do give us a call, then we’ll go ahead and assist them as much as we could,” the representative said to me in reference to the women who were scammed. My girlfriend called Joe’s, and they couldn’t possibly have cared less. They basically put all the blame on her, later telling me: “We’re doing the best we can. We’ve never received any reports from that location,” which is almost certainly BS.
To be sure, it’s a tricky situation, and on some level, I can see why a parking lot would not want to compensate these scam-victims, because the lot would be losing out on money. The scammers are the crooks here. Still, this lot called a tow truck on probably 10 cars; they should have figured something was amiss. That’s what’s so strange about this; it seems like something fishy is going on…
Some kind of sign stating something to the effect of “There Are No Parking Lot Attendants At This Location. Pay Only At Kiosk” might be helpful, and at the same time, my girlfriend and those other women who attended the vintage clothing show are just going to have to be more careful moving forward. It’s not easy, because it’s hard to distinguish a legit parking lot attendant from a fake one. Maybe the move is to never pay cash, but that doesn’t work all the time.
So be careful out there. The last thing I want is for your prized 1991 Chrysler LeBaron to get scraped up by a tow truck, hauled to an impound lot, and released only after you pay over $500. I’d rather you spend that money on the engine rebuild you’ll need eventually. Consider yourselves warned.
Topshot image credit: via stock.adobe.com: Guy = Saksit. Street scene = Tada Images
This is a regular occurrence in Downtown Detroit as well whenever there is a sporting event going on! ۹( ÒہÓ )۶
That’s why ya either park at the Opera House or park in Rivertown and take a shuttle 🙂
I used to take the shuttle from Nemo’s.
Nemo’s is a fun one. I went with Andrew’s On The Corner as my staple.
Or even just eating at the Mcdonald’s on Woodward. https://www.metrotimes.com/news/predatory-towing-detroit-mcdonalds-customers-say-theyve-been-scammed-15512178
Oh, I know all about it, it was a nearly a one year undercover investigation by local media that uncovered this scam!
I always use a parking app ahead of time to stave off this sort of crap. There are a few decent ones like ParkMobile and ParkWhiz.
Good to know, thanks.
I recently went to a concert in downtown Seattle, near the stadiums. The parking lots had large signs indicating DO NOT PAY CASH TO ATTENDANT. Pay only by QR code (or something like that). I street-parked for free a few blocks down the street. The Last Dinner Party show was very good!
I posted this already, but there are people in downtown Seattle who will hang out at the lots to check expiration times on receipts and threaten to report you.
On the rare occasions where something interesting is happening downtown, I’ll always use a Park and Ride and take the train. Even without scams, who wants to deal with the traffic and parking.
David, thanks for sharing this. I feel less stupid knowing I’m not the only one who’s experienced this. One evening, years ago in Savannah GA parked in attended surface lot that was a Church parking lot. Professional looking sign, seemed legit, until we returned to vehicle around midnight, Church members were returning from an outing in multiple buses and of course getting into their cars. Tow truck was waiting for buses to clear the entrance so he could swoop in. Fortunately, my rental was a Ram 4×4, we jumped the parking block, sidewalk and curb to make our getaway. I’m definitely more selective about paid parking since that adventure!
I hope you mooned them on the way out!
COTD, thanks I needed this!
This is why I just take the train into the city.
Yup. When I go to games in downtown STL I park on one of the outlying Metro station lots for free and take the train. For whatever downsides it has, it’s nothing compared to dealing with traffic and parking downtown. Price and security wise it ends up being about the same either way, so let someone else do the driving.
And get felt up by a homeless.
Don, show us on the doll where they touched you.
I’ve been riding public transportation for 50 years and nothing even close to that has ever happened.
Lay off the cable news, dude.
IME the homeless on public transit either keep to themselves or should loud imprecations at everyone in the conveyance. They don’t grope.
The thieves and other lowlifes don’t look very different from the average bus/train rider.
Philadelphia Car show circa 2017. The one lot my family has used to almost every visit of the Phila convention center, had always been cash with an attendant at the entrance. 2017 was the first time they put in machines for payment, with numbers on every space, but still needed attendants to show people where to park. Well I had been there a few months prior when no attendants were present, and paid at the machine.
Went to the show with my dad, who was so used to decades of paying cash at that lot, when he saw the attendant he rolled his window down to pay. The guy told him pay when you park. Immediately after parking another guy came up with “tickets” and was ready to take our cash. I told the guy we would only pay at the machine, and he started arguing with us. Eventually the argument got loud enough the attendant from the front came back. Once guy 2 saw the attendant he bolted right down the street.
Perfectly placed ad in this article for a towing company in Silver Spring
A variant of this scam was absolutely rampant around Austin for a while. The city owned public lots have never had attendants (well, not for a long time). You did a “pay by plate” system. Initially this was via phone, then texting, and now there’s an app. There’s almost always a kiosk too. Scammers would slap an “out of order” sign on the kiosk- or vandalize and actually break it- and then set up shop collecting money, cash only, from parkers. Of course being they did this downtown on weekend nights when demand was highest, but cops caught on and surprisingly did clamp down on it, routinely patrolling lots. The city also quickly put signage up to the effect of “Pay Only at Kiosk or by Phone- These Lots Do Not Utilize Attendants”.
Problem solved, right? Nope! The scammers had to get a bit more techy, but they quickly adapted. QR Code stickers slapped on the kiosks for cashapp, venmo, ect that would scan and then prompt sending payment to “Official ATX Parking” account (or some other fake, but realistic sounding government account, and your tag # to seem legitimate). Pretty quickly those warning signs got an additional warning that “City of Austin Does Not Use Third-Party Payment Apps”
What now? QR code stickers that would bring you to a convincing fake website that looked just like the (real) app. It even “charged” the same city rates….and harvested your CC info for the scammers. As you’d expect this quickly turned into a shitshow for the city, people coming back to find their cars had been towed, despite supposedly paying (and likely a bunch of fraudulent charges quickly made on their CC, typically trying to buy bitcoin or the scammer’s favorite- gift cards).
So then the city went around scraping off fake QR codes, and putting signage on all the kiosks with a QR code with a big X over it- City of Austin Does Not Use QR Codes For Payment- Pay Only at Kiosk or by Phone. Still, it’s whack-a-mole. People rip off the scam warning signs and slap more stickers on, inevitably catching out of towners for a few weeks before it’s fixed.
It’s a particularly effective scam as around the city there are plenty of privately owned lots, that DO utilize QR codes to legitimately pay.
It’s for this reason I always used the same parking ramp every time I hit downtown Austin. Hard to scam when the lot has a gate that only opens through legit payment….
People will do literally anything other than run a legit business lol
Had similar happen to me in Tulsa for a Kings of Leon concert. Got flagged into an alley by an attendant near the BOK Center that wasn’t charging the usual $30 to $50 most close lots charge. He pointed me to the end of the alley on the left. I pull in to a small lot behind a downtown building, and realize…..he didn’t give me any ticket. As another concert goer started asking the same, a luxury SUV pulls up and parks. Guy gets out, asks what we are doing here. We told him. He said he owned the building and they don’t do event parking. Oh, bleep…..
Thankfully, dude was cool. He was headed to KoL as well. Let us stay parked there while he headed down the alley to confront the guy. Dude sees him coming, drops his flag and takes off running. By our count he made a quick $100, probably with a flag and sign he stole from another lot.
KoL were great though….
Parking stubs at a legit lot from a real attendant are usually perforated. The driver keeps half and the attendant either puts his half on your dash or keeps it.
I’ve never heard/seen this phrase before. I’m assuming it’s a regionalism; it might also not be the most culturally conscious term. May I suggest “A-frame sign,” which I’m assuming is the form factor being referred to here (a google image search for your term only produced cringy Etsy-type results, not anything you’d see at a parking lot), and is probably a more generally known and less potentially freighted term.
Crummy thing to happen, and I’ll add to the chorus saying shame on the tow driver, too.
Sandwich board is the term I have heard the most, and I agree that the term used here is not a good term nor broadly in common use.
A-boards or sandwich boards are the most common terms in the sign industry.
Are all historical residences off limits or just teepee? We can still say adobe hut and yurt, right?
I’ll never stop saying Hooverville no matter how offensive it is, even though everyone who used the term unironically died at least 40 years ago.
This is the first time that I have seen a suggestion that “Hooverville” was offensive to anyone but Herbert Hoover. And weren’t Hoovervilles likely to be a wide cross section of races & ethnic groups – making them one of the more diverse groups of their time? And I think it is more like 20 years – say you were an adult of 20 years age in the 1930’s, if you lived to be 90 that would put you alive in 2000. Of course for the most part that generation didn’t talk much about the bad old days.
How dare you lol
Regardless of cultural baggage, the signs aren’t conical like teepees, so it’s not a good descriptive term.
What the fuck does “freighted” mean? lol
It carries baggage.
I come here for cool car knowledge and cool car stuff, this is not that…
As much as I hate the QR scan code lots, they are now your safest bet. They usually cost more but you know its a real lot and you’ve paid your money. You have the electronic receipt that shows the license number you typed in.
Someone just commented that thieves will put scam QR stickers on top of the legit ones. Which is actually pretty fucking clever.
Where I live there are parking lots with kiosks to pay but during events, they have attendants and charge double or triple the price. It would be difficult to gauge if its legitimate or not because their signage is easily replicated.
I remember back in the early 70s couple of my frat bros went to the Ky Derby, paid 10 bucks (real money at that time) to park in some guy’s front yard, came back after the race, car had been towed and another guy claiming to be the actual homeowner knew nothing about what had happened. Maybe this is still common?
Dude this happened all the time at Braves games in Atlanta. We almost handed some guy our money when another dude came out of the house yelling like crazy, and guy took off.
The real criminals here are tow truck drivers charging $300 to drop a barely hooked up car.
I guarantee he realized towing the AWD RX with two wheels on the ground would’ve blown up something expensive, but he could just sit and wait for an easy profit. Pretty sure most states have caps at hookup/release charges at under half this.
Without a doubt the tawing company (maybe not this driver) is in on the scheme. Years ago we parked in a lot we regularly parked in for dinner, came out and everyone had been towed. This was used by a local business during the day and had a bunch of places that used it for parking at night. There was a half dozen or more signs on the lot and the only one that indicated no night-time parking was in the back wall covered with Ivy – which the tow-truck driver readily pointed to when the cops showed up. At least the tow-truck driver gave me a ride to the lot and stopped at an ATM so I could pay the cash-only fee.
Jail the fake attendants and suspend the licenses of the tow truck drivers.
Yea good luck with that in Los Angeles
Not that it would help every time, but another thing I’d pay attention to is how they designate cars are good to park–I want a ticket inside the car, on the front dash, rather than an exterior ticket that can be pulled off. That and/or a receipt at least prove you paid, even if you could still get scammed. As to not paying cash, anyone can get a Square card reader. You’d maybe be able to get your “parking” money back, but I doubt it would help you with a ticket or towing.
The reason this scam works so well is that it’s hard to distinguish from a shitty real lot. My main defense against these has generally been to park farther away from large events that don’t offer their own parking. They tend to set up as close to events as they can, since they want to grab some cash and move on, not sit all day.
The tow truck driver taking money to release the car was pretty shitty, too. I understand he may have already reported grabbing the car, but he could report that he had to cancel because of the circumstance.
Isn’t there a law that your car can’t be towed when you’re in it? Could she have simply gotten in it?
I don’t know the law well enough, but a cursory read gave me this:
Seems to me that the tow truck should have allowed her to move the vehicle to a lawful location and unconditionally release the vehicle, but I don’t have the time to do enough of a deep dive to find exceptions and/or case law that would verify that.
Are you quoting from California code?
Yes, from California Vehicle Code Section 22658.
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=VEH§ionNum=22658.
From what I’ve seen, in that situation they wouldn’t tow the car but they wouldn’t release it either.
First person to die of thirst loses?
Generally the cops are called in that scenario, which may have been helpful here but probably not since at the end of the day Elise was still parked where she shouldn’t have been, regardless of fault.
I’m distrustful, so I immediately think that the towing company is involved in the scam.
Eh….I wouldn’t rule it out, but I think it’s more likely just profit motive on the part of the driver.
Not to mention, if the fake attendants are long gone after the tow truck shows up, it looks extra blatant on the part of the car owners.
He should’ve charged the scammer instead.
Probably the only thing that will work is if enough people stop going to events and locations that require paid parking.
Obviously screw the scammer for taking Elise’s money. I’m also saying screw the towing company for demanding $297 just to release her vehicle when it was blindingly obvious that Elise was already the victim of a scam. He couldn’t let the car that could be driven away by the owner go and move on to the next one? Prick.
The lot is in a tough position because leaving the cars until the owners come back prevents them from selling those spaces to a customer. It’s not practical to have an employee stand around in the lot all day chasing off scammers or waiting for the vehicle owners to come back so they can collect a legitimate charge. They could show a lot more sympathy for the scam victims, however.
This is a great example of where legislation needs to step in to give people more safety net. Assuming there are no caps on what a tow truck can charge, they’ll charge as much as they can get away with. I’m sure that’s already the cap in LA/CA, but damn if $297 isn’t flat out extortion, Tow Trucks already make ridiculous money by preying on people, don’t give them such a big windfall for doing nothing.
This feels like it would be trivial to stamp out with a little effort from the police. I guess they’re busy elsewhere…?
If they wanted to earn a paycheck doing something constructive, they wouldn’t be cops.
Wow. That’s not cool.
Neither is:
A) A deputy allowing or deputizing a homeless man to perform scene control at an accident in the Florida sun while he sat in an air-conditioned patrol car playing on his phone as FD/EMS (in full bunker gear, no less) were still cutting a person out of the car wreck in the treeline. That guy was a better traffic controller than most state troopers!
B) Local cops conducting a monthslong traffic stop campaign against employees of one company because one of their dumbass HR people confronted some officers about blocking their parking lot by using it for a staging area. Nevermind she was fired for overstepping, I still got multiple spurious citations for “registration sticker placed incorrectly” that I had to get dismissed, and many of my ex-coworkers can tell you the same.
C) Another city’s cop refusing to issue an accident report to me when the gentleman who rear-ended me at a stale red admitted to not having insurance (instant at-fault and license suspension for him). The officer heavily implied he’d go back and change the narrative to make me at fault if I continued to request a correct report.
Where I was directly involved (B and C), I was civil and respectful to the officers involved. I also don’t have a record beyond 1 (earned) citation and that accident mentioned in C. Demoralization from “defund the police/ACAB” also doesn’t explain incidents A/C either, as both were pre-2020.
I have data indicative of a pattern (and, admittedly, an axe to grind now after two incidents of misconduct affecting me personally); what’s your take?
My take? Ok, since you asked, my take is two-fold. First is that you have never actually needed the cops, and if you did, you’d change your tune in a heartbeat. Secondly, you have an impressively vivid imagination combined with a pretty well-honed ability to make assumptions.
Your first scenario is not only highly improbable, but coloring it with making the guy homeless, and automatically assuming the cop was dicking around on his phone instead of using it for work purposes certainly is doing the heavy lifting there.
The second scenario, while plausible, is pretty much on you for not correcting your registration sticker after the first citation instead of blowing it off, and causing yourself more headaches. Passive aggressively blowing off the citation also added a bullseye on your back.
The third scenario just sounds like you were being a pain in the ass.
Again, you asked.
I’ve needed to call the police several times in my life. One of those times they were legitimately helpful. The others they were as unprofessional as the anecdotes provided above.
I see I’m not going to get anywhere so I’m leaving it at this:
I grew up sympathetic to law enforcement, but I have had enough experience with petty police malefeasance to see what’s going on (and thankfully never needed their help for serious shit), and I’m not exactly a convict with 59 tattoos and 15 convictions. Eddie Haskell would have a hard time “backing the blue.”
Have a nice day.
Asking for an accident report is being a pain in the ass in your book? Dude, how do you even breathe while you’re deep-throating those boots?
First of all, no one was talking to you.
Secondly, your mom doesn’t wear boots.
The really good scammers wait until the HOT DOUGHNUTS NOW sign is on at Krispy Kreme
this is LA, they’ve probably been de-funded, or they just don’t care as it’s not over $950
Hm. I would be suspicious of an attendant not letting me put it on the dash, but then I live in Florida where everywhere you go there’s someone trying to pull something, so…
Also, I realize legally it’s not the tow truck guy’s problem, but multiple complaints and he doesn’t even try to report it up the chain or pretend not to see at least some of these cars (maybe only getting cars he thinks can pay)? What a stallion.
I’ve only had bad experience with tow truck drivers and companies, especially in College where they would tow a car for anything even bordering an infraction, because they knew 9/10 times it was college student whose parents would pay the inflated fee. I know not all tow truck drivers are utter scum, but I’ve never seen one pass up an easy profit before
The tow truck driver in the movie “Adventures in Babysitting”, “Handsome” John Pruitt, was one of the good ones.
I don’t know if a sign would fix it, scammer could just say “oh, the kiosk system is offline today” or “we’re working here today due to the volume from the event”
Could still be pretty convincing under the circumstances
True. It’s tricky! All I know is: Elise and the other people scammed shouldn’t be embarrassed. This is a tough situation to read!
Yeah, it’s such an easy scam to pull, the only way around it, that I can see, is for the parking lot company to employ an actual attendant, but that’s against how things are supposed to operate these days
Had this happen at a Jazz festival in Alberta, guy was collecting 20$ and having people park in vacant lot, there were three of them in the town, I was skeptical but saw a city truck drive by and the RCMP and they didn’t stop so I paid my money and went to the festival. Came out and every car still in the lots hat tickets of $175.00. I appealed the ticket and lost as they city said rightly that I was in the wrong. My big issue was the city bylaw waiting until the lots were full before ticketing. Spoke with a resident who said that every weekend it happens, so I figured 600 cars at $175.00 the city is billing $105000.00 every day this happens. The city has put out some 12 inch square signs saying not a parking lot but I guess they get ripped out every weekend
12 inch square sign versus barriers to keep cars out? This is the city’s own version of this scam.
I recently drove to Denver for a concert, and had I not prepaid for parking with my tickets, I’d have had maximum confidence the lot attendant was a conman. He didn’t pressure me for money, but he also did absolutely nothing to verify I had actually prepaid (it was a prepay-only lot), and he never got out of his car and tucked down under the door sill when a cop car drove by as we were walking out of the lot. My comment to my wife after we witnessed that was “I hope our car is still here when the concert ends, and not at some impound lot”. It was there, but the tow trucks were working hard at other nearby lots.
I think this is it. I don’t go downtown a lot, but I can’t remember the last time a legitimate lot demanded cash instead of a ticket machine or a pay-inside kiosk.
If the lots put up a sign, it would in theory allow the cops to do something about these guys. As it is, they have no way of knowing.
Lots of legitimate venues near me only allow cash. I’m talking known and valid lots near ballgames or events. The difference being that there’s normally about half a dozen workers or more, all wearing matching vests, directing you and such.
It’s not that uncommon around sporting events, at least near me. I’ve paid cash to park near plenty of events and I have to admit I’ve never even considered the possibility of a scam like this.