Good Samaritan Gets Parking Ticket While Helping Driver Fix Flat Tire, City Councilman Outraged At NYPD
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – A good Samaritan is finding out the hard way that "no good deed goes unpunished."
All he was trying to do was help out a fellow driver with a flat tire – and he got a ticket for it.
Whether it's an SUV stranded on the FDR Drive or a family's mini-van out of gas on the Major Geegan, if you call this non-profit in Brooklyn, chances are a member will show up to get you on your way within minutes.
"Almost 40,000 calls every single year," Aron Kohn of Chaveirim Brooklyn said.
There are countless "thank you" notes hanging on the walls of their dispatch office because they don't charge. They won't even accept tips, but the volunteer called to help with a flat tire in Williamsburg Monday certainly didn't expect a ticket either.
"Look what we're doing. Trying to help people and you're writing a summons?" Kohn said. "A slap on your face!"
The man raced to the corner of Wallabout Street and Lee Avenue, parking his car right behind the white van with a flat tire. Unfortunately the good Samaritan was in a no standing zone while changing that tire.
"Don't you see somebody's stuck here?" the traffic agent was asked at the scene.
An NYPD traffic enforcement agent was printing out a summons with a hefty fine.
"Once they turned around it was too late. The summons was already written, that's the end of it," Kohn said.
As it stands right now, the member who was helping the person stuck in the intersection is on the hook for $115.
"We expect more from government," City Councilman Chaim Deutsch declared to CBS2's Jessica Layton.
"When I try to reach out to the traffic department it's like pulling teeth."
Councilman Deutsch told CBS2 he's disgusted and has offered to write a letter in support of the volunteer based on his defense when he goes to fight the ticket.
"That traffic agent should have made a good gesture by offering help," the councilman added. "Or at least say 'oh I see what's going on.'"
So far the NYPD will only say the matter is under review – reviewing a kind gesture punished instead of appreciated.
