Police Officer Preparation & Law Enforcement Resource - Archive

Get Counting

November 24, 2003

By Ken Schram


Video : KOMO 4 NEWS
The district court in Bellevue wants to reject a payment of 3,700 pennies a woman made for her parking ticket, but it's legal tender.

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SEATTLE - The City of Bellevue needs an attitude adjustment.

And maybe some parking enforcement leniency.

Getting slapped with a $37 ticket she didn't feel was deserved, Tammy Sully expressed her irritation one cent at a time.

She bundled up 3,700 pennies, put her name, address and parking infraction number on a label, and mailed the 22-pound box off to the district court in Bellevue.

'Uh-oh', someone said when it was delivered; could be a bomb.

50 people hit the street as the building was evacuated.

Well, Tammy feels badly about that, but is in no way contrite about her act of defiance. Now a court officer wants her to come and take her pennies back, and pay her fine in more conventional fashion.

The court officer says he doesn't have the staff to sit around counting pennies.

Wah-wah-wah.

My advice to Tammy: DON'T DO IT!

Those pennies come to us courtesy of the United States Mint, an official arm of the federal government.

Those pennies are LEGAL TENDER, and as such Tammy, you've paid what you owed.

As for the district court in Bellevue, roll with it.

Don't collect parking fines if you can't do the counting time.

Dang, this was on the radio here in MI too. And you're right Norm, its legal tender, they gotta take it.

If I was Tammy, I'd tell them to reduce my fine and I'd think about writing a check. But considering it was only $37, I guess its about the principle and not the money, huh?

That's hilarious. Money counting machines are pretty common now. Even if they don't have one, all they'd have ot do is weight the pennies. Take the total weight, divided by the individual weight. That is how many pennies there are. Not too complicated. Take the pennies, they're still legal. At least they're being used for something.

I am sure they are concerned bout setting a precedent.

They should forbid the payment by cash all together and go with money orders or cashiers checks only. That would solve the problem.

'

I paid a $1000.00 fine with quarters once in Hawaii, they were all rolled up and they had no problem taking them.

I remember when some lady (I think it was in Santa Monica?) got in trouble because she was going around feeding other people's parking meters! What a load of BS.

Have you seen the meter fairy on 'Jackass?" Guy dresses up in a fairy outfit, pops out of a trash can, and taunts the meter lady as he runs around and feeds the meters ahead of her. He pretty much dares her to arrest him. They film the whole act. One of the few actual 'funny' acts on that show.

Is there really a law saying you cannot put money in a parking meter? Obviously the city would get more money out of a ticket than a quarter being deposited. If it was, why didn't the guy on MTV get arrested by a real cop?

Why would a person get in trouble for putting money in a parking meter? What's illegal about that?

Yes. Some cities have made it illegal. I don't why, other than to suggest that it may cut into their pocket books.

In Portland, it is illegal to park your car in a meteres spot for more than 90 minutes. Once your time is up, you must move off the block.

This is designed to alllow other shoppers to have a shot at the space. If you are there for a long period of time, it's cheaper to move to a pay garage anyways.

Originally posted by gdowkpc
Have you seen the meter fairy on 'Jackass?" Guy dresses up in a fairy outfit, pops out of a trash can, and taunts the meter lady as he runs around and feeds the meters ahead of her. He pretty much dares her to arrest him. They film the whole act. One of the few actual 'funny' acts on that show.


I have never heard of a meter maid with arrest powers. LOL I would dare one to arrest me to.

Norm

I'll feed every meter in New Orleans if I could. In N.O. they have meter NAZIS plain and simple. I watched them on many occasions kick meters with lots of time on them so they reset and they'd ticket the vehicle. Once I was at a jobsite working, everyone would shout a warning when the MN started up the street so I ran out and beat her to my van. She took the time to politly explain that if I had the companies name on my van she wouldn't ticket me and I'd be safe. I joked about writing the contractors name in the dust on the van, she said sure that would work fine since this was her "beat" and she talked to me.... I went back to work on the third floor when a coworker showed the Meter Nazi ticketing me from the window.
%&*$@