Article from: www.thenewspaper.com/news/14/1453.asp

11/20/2006

Colorado: Parking Meter Samaritan Threatened with Arrest
A Denver, Colorado man is threatened with arrest for feeding an expired parking meter.

A Good Samaritan in Denver, Colorado was threatened with arrest last Wednesday for the crime of putting coins in expired parking meters. Stanley Yaffe had been helping out fellow motorists on 18th Street when a meter maid confronted him, claiming she would have him arrested for "interfering with the collection of city revenue."

After asking whether she was joking, Yaffe apologized and said he would not do it again and was about to walk away. "What makes you think I'm letting you go?" the meter maid said.

"We use the services of the Denver Police Department if there is any interference with the parking enforcement staff," Public Works spokesman Patty Weiss told the Denver Post. There is no specific law against feeding meters. The meter maid eventually released Yaffe.

Like Yaffe, Mayor John Hickenlooper has been upset by overly aggressive meter maids in the city and is doing what he can to help. Currently, he is offering to personally pay the parking tickets of anyone ticketed while trying to vote on November 7. He also used video of himself feeding expired parking meters in a 2003 campaign commercial.

Source: Random act of kindness begets meter madness (Denver Post, 11/20/2006)

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