This is a true story:
I arrived in Washington DC on January 20th after driving several thousand miles for an annual DC event. And upon arrival I had to go for a covid test at the nearby CVS medical lab near Le Enfant Plaza . I had never been to this area before & I was using Google Maps for navigation.
Suddenly I realized I need to empty my bowels urgently. Unfortunately there is not a lot of public restrooms in many places as I travel so I've devised a way to take care of restroom business inside my vehicle as I travel either discreetly using a bottle or a bucket which I appropriately dispose of later.
So as I was arriving at the covid testing place I realized I need to take care of bathroom business first. I pulled up to the parking meter intending to pay the meter AFTER I took care of bathroom business which would probably take 5 to 10 minutes. I figured parking enforcement wouldn't come so quickly.
I was wrong. In the middle of 'taking care of business', a parking enforcement officer came up to my vehicle and gives me a $30 parking ticket. I could see through the cracks of the coverings that I put over the windows when I need privacy.
Obviously I couldn't leave my vehicle and I couldn't get up and start the car or talk to her in the middle of 'doing business'.
So I finished doing my duty & then I stuck my head out & told her I had just arrived ... without explaining the exact circumstances. She responded she had 'no way of knowing how long I had been here.' Nor did she offer to void the ticket. I expressed my feelings about it and that was that.
However, there is a lesson to be learned: the parking officer clearly could have discerned that somebody was in the vehicle. She could also simply feel the hood to see HOW WARM is the engine to verify the car had just been turned off.
Unless she is intentionally taking pleasure in reducing a person's savings, her goal should be to honestly & fairly issue tickets to those who are clearly disregarding parking rules. NOT trying to "get" people in a game of 'cat & mouse' all about seconds or a few minutes. This is NOT a basketball '3 seconds in the lane' violation.
This felt like she was being zealous & vexatious. And almost like she knew I had just arrived. I was literally there only a few minutes & literally taking care of a personal emergency inside the vehicle. It just seems too coincidental that she could arrive so quickly. Do they use cameras? Was she following me ? This was BEYOND casually doing one's parking enforcement job. It was targeting. SHAME ON YOU 👎.
I feel violated.
