It Might Be Tiresome, But Scrape Off Your Car, Or Risk A Ticket
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Adding insult to injury, if you haven't dug out your car from all the snow and ice plaguing us this winter, you might find it plastered with tickets.
WBBM Newsradio's Regine Schlesinger has heard from a couple of Chicago car owners who were ticketed for "abandoning" their cars, each ticket costing $75.
Rather than go through the trouble of digging out their cars, and losing their parking spot if they move, many drivers have been opting to just take the train or bus to work and leave their car parked after a big snowstorm.
However, leaving your car sitting idle too long on a city street could result in a ticket. City law allows police to ticket and even tow a car if it hasn't been moved in seven days.
Mike Brockway, who bills himself as "The Parking Ticket Geek," and runs The Expired Meter website, suggested if you can't completely dig out your car, at least clean off the roof and windshield.
"We highly recommend that people go out and clear the snow off their cars, even if they may not be moving them, because essentially you make your car a target by having such a huge snow build-up on it," he said.
While police are within their legal rights to ticket a car that's been parked in the same spot for a week or more, Brockway said in this relentless winter, you'd think they would be more lenient.