Borough Park Store Keeps ‘Muni-Meter Gemach’
This gives new meaning to the concept of charity. A Borough Park lumber store is collecting used Muni-Meter receipts from customers in a cardboard box above its checkout counter in a new scam to help scofflaws trick the cash-strapped city.
The swindle is simple.
Drivers who have been slapped with parking tickets on the streets close to the Borough Park store can search for matching receipts donated by other drivers. Those lucky enough to find one with the same block and time can then use it to challenge their ticket, falsely asserting that the traffic agent failed to see that they had actually purchased the required meter receipt.
“People come in here all the time to check it out,” said an employee outside the Boro Park Lumber & Home Center at 4601 New Utrecht Ave.
Newer receipts with remaining time can also be used by customers.
A store manager Tuesday said the box wasn’t setup by a staffer.
“Somebody outside the store did it. We are not involved in it,” he said.
The box was initially labeled a “gmach,” the Hebrew acronym for kind acts. The term is typically used for charitable loan services that include everything from cash to wedding dresses to folding chairs for people sitting shiva after the loss of a loved one.
But the box is a new take on the expanding network of community loans.
In September 2011, the Bloomberg administration took down its old pole-mounted coin meters and switched to the solar-powered Muni-Meter boxes that can handle eight parking spots.
City traffic agents issued 9,012,854 tickets and collected $513 million in resulting parking fines in fiscal year 2012, which ended in June, city records show.
“No one can dispute the fact that our city is ticket-happy,” said Councilman James Vacca (D-Bronx), the chairman of the Transportation Committee, “but fraudulently helping people fight tickets when they are actually guilty is over the top.”
The city’s Transportation Department and Finance Department declined to comment.
Embarassed
Over the top! Chilul Hashem big time! A ganif in a kapote!
this is sooo embarresing
its such a shame that this stereo type is being placed on all of us,,, we live in this city and are always fighting the system,,, were do the halochos if the “midina” play??? or the halochos of a chilul hashem??
not kapote
Bechetche
I agree
As someone who has to drive to work, and many times park at muni meters i totally agree with this, but it is not something to bring to public attention.
DR
check halacha on that and think clearly.
love this
BRILLIANT
CHLEAKS.COM
I’m not getting into whether this is right or wrong, Chillul Hashem or not.
One thing I’m certain…
I don’t feel bad for the city.
The city issues many bogus and unjustified tickets on a daily basis.
Don’t get me wrong. If you did a crime you should pay the fine.
But what about when you didn’t [really] use your phone while driving and you got a ticket for doing so? What are your chances in wining your case in court, it’s your word against the officers word?
Also have in mind that the judge who finds you “guilty” is getting his/her salary from the money you just paid the city.
Why is the city allowed to find any and every way to make a few dollars (with every excuse to ticket and tax) while we can’t find ways to avoid this?
To end off: 1) The guy who reported this is a schmuck.
2) Today where every schmuck has a camera which is connected to social media. in a matter of seconds the world sees everything. One one be very careful about everything.
1bigcholent
Using liberal “logic”, I would argue that…
In NYC we have a liberal Mayor and Governor and the country just voted in a liberal President. That said.
(Remember, I’m using backwards liberal thinking).
The city is the 1% and we are the 99% and therefore we can “rightfully take” our fair share [back] from the 1%.
Mendel
And NYC DOT is a ganif without a kapote!
Josh Lipkind
Brilliant!
We should set one up on Kingston Ave.
I would say that we should set one up on Troy Ave with the new Muni-Meters, but there are hardly any actual businesses on Troy to set it up at.
jail time
just a matter of time before the Feds come looking around. Dump the box and run.
de
A huge chilul Hashem but at the same time as a visitor to NY who has gotten parking tickets under the new system I can tell you that it’s not very clear on how they work. For example, even though I had purchased a ticket and had it in the window it was upside down. I had no idea that it mattered which way you put it in the window. The thing about some major cities is that they are so aggressive about ticketing and it’s ridiculous. That upside down in the window ticket was followed by another ticket an hour later for being parked in the same spot (paid for with a new ticket, properly displayed). I was staying a someone’s house by myself with a very young child so running out and moving the car to a new spot every 1 hour is just ridiculous.
Better Idea
When I’m done parking I put my unexpired munimeter receipts back in the munimeter for anyone to take and use.
Tickets are Bogus
The fines are totally not justified, just like the fake street cleaning. The city is about to persecute a Jew Yitzy Schochet for a hate crime. When all he really was doing is standing up to aggressors who threw rocks at a Jewish girl.
So forget the city and the bogus fines…
A kaparah!
Number 12, here’s a better one!
I forgot to remove the piece of paper from my dashboard, and a few days later I got a ticket for covering up the VIN number!
Pot calling the kettle.
I love how quick the commenters are to label this as geneiva, all the while the commenters are probably on state benefits without actually qualifying.
WHAT-S HONESTY
We are constantly being given a most spectacular shining example of crookedness BY NONE OTHER THAN THE WONDERFUL COPS that dish out tickets WRONGLY! and there is no one to fight for the rights of the poor victims. I myself am in that boat. I was given a ticket for being parked in front of a no parking school zone. when I wasn NOT even parked there. When I tried fighting it and showed pictures of where I was parked, the response from the superior mr. dishonesty- the judge, was ‘your evidence is not convincing enough”. so yes it should not be publicized, but the city is creating this type of stuff by their unfair ticketing,.
Misunderstood!!!
The D News didn’t ‘get’ it. This is NOT a scandal! (Someone get the word out.) It has a perfectly LEGAL HONEST purpose. Say I pay for 2 hours, but I find myself using the spot for 1 hour. I now have a perfectly legal receipt for another hour! Why not let someone else use it? So, I drop it off into the gemach box, and anyone can check it out and use it for the second hour. (After all, the old system allowed this.)
Honest, legal, and brilliant.
#15 Here-s better (worse) one
I parked in the parking spot next to a no parking zone and the DOT towed my car away claiming that I was parked in the no parking zone area.
Even though I was parked in a legal spot
If the DOT is allowed to cheat what can NYC expect from us
every store should have one!
I think we should make this type of gemach for every store in crown heights!
Why publish this?
What kind of positive effect could it have to publish an expose of a small store in another community who allegedly decided to stoop to petty thievery? I see no benefit in this article other than a chilul H-shem (yes, not only by the alleged perpetrators) and yet another attempt to draw a readership from the lower elements by posting trash about who you assume to be religious Jews. I’m not even mentioning the cheap tricks used by the police in Boro Park to make a buck from a Jew- but if this was a purely objective article, you would have. Instead of pushing slander and bitter feelings why not use your media resources for something more conducive to world peace.