Parking Lot Caught Selling Metered Parking Spots on the Side

SHAME!

There's no local news segment we love more than Arnold Diaz's Shame Shame Shame! series. Previously, Diaz has shamed Martha Stewart and her dangerous chairs, the "drunken negro" cookie baker, and the United Homeless Organization. The newest inductee into the Fox 5 Hall of Shame is the Supreme Parking lot across from the Queens Supreme Court on Sutphin Boulevard. Their crime? Bogarting metered parking spots with DOT and DEP traffic cones, and then selling the spots to desperate motorists.

Diaz scores some sweet hidden camera footage of the scam, showing Supreme Parking employees setting up official-looking cones on the street early in the morning to block off the metered parking outside the courthouse, where parking is already a nightmare. Then a Fox 5 producer rolls into the lot with a hidden camera, and an employee offers her one of the metered spots for $20, promising to feed the meter for her. She's then waved over to one of the reserved spots, and cones are whisked away.

When confronted about the scam, one employee says he's just doing people a favor by feeding the meter for them. Diaz contacted the DOT, who told him it's the NYPD's job to police the metered parking spots. Of course, a spokesman for the NYPD told Diaz it's the DOT's job! Perhaps the most galling part of the segment is when they catch indolent meter maids shuffling past the coned-off spots without bothering to do a damn thing about it. For his next report, Diaz needs to induct one of these traffic cops to the great shame hall. Watch the entire episode below:

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By John Del Signore in News on June 11, 2010 10:22 AM

Comments [rss]

whatsd

I think I'm going to rent a Zip Car tomorrow, drive over to Queens, and park in one of those coned off spots. I'll drive right over the cone.

JenChungsBaby

This is kind of like the UES where the doorman runs out and tries to stop you when you attempt to park in front of certain buildings. I had a guy once tell me they had a DOT permit for the spot in front of the building, so I parked there and told him to show me the permit. There was none of course.

Cranky Old Man

THIS is exactly what the local TV news organizations need to start doing more of, in order to compete with the Internet. This is the kind of stuff that is both informative and useful to the local public at large. A blogger with a video camera can not replicate this type of thing. You need a licensed news organization with press credentials. A blogger would likely get his ass kicked by these creeps.

Take notice, local TV news, this is what will make you competitive again.

JenChungsBaby

Arnold Diaz has been doing this shtick for years.

drewo

Car culture criminality effect.

grandzu

A lot of garages/lots do similar things except they usually reserve the spot by moving a car from inside to a metered spot.

whitecastlerock

the DOT needs to install a bike lane here to end this madness

valeriob

Saw this report, I couldn't believe the smug face on the jerk running this scheme.

All people have to do is act like they're going to pay them, get the cones on the street moved, and then just walk away with prime street parking.

What are they going to do call the cops? Not to mention their lot is fixed so they're not going anywhere or doing any thing to your ride.