Over 5,000 parking meters in Berkeley, California have been beheaded or otherwise vandalized over the past two months. The meters are being broken faster than they can be repaired, costing the city $1 million in lost revenue and an additional $1 million for the cost of contested parking tickets involving disabled meters.

In response to this revenue crisis, the city is turning to a new parking kiosk system where motorists will have to walk to a nearby centralized station that prints out a receipt for display inside the car's window. Berkeley police are on the lookout for the parking meter vigilantes, threatening arrest for anyone damaging city property. In 1998, parking protesters successfully destroyed two-thirds of the city's meters.

"These broken meters unnecessarily burden city resources, take valuable revenue away from the city and confuse (drivers)," Berkeley police spokesman Officer Joe Okies said in a prepared statement.