John Seth was not happy when he returned to his car after
making an early afternoon delivery in downtown Seattle last month and found that
he’d left his lights on.
He was even less pleased when a city parking-enforcement
officer handed him a $28 parking ticket. Not for being in a space illegally or
for having an expired meter � it was for those headlights.
” ‘You left your lights on,’ ” Seth recalled the parking
officer saying. ‘We can cite for it, so we do.’ ”
“It’s just insane.” Seth said yesterday. “And the worst
part of it was she smiled when she gave it to me and said, ‘Merry Christmas.’ ”
…If there’s any silver lining for Seth, it might be
that if he had gotten the ticket today, it would be $38 instead of $28 because
of the city’s efforts to balance the 2003 budget.
Still, “For the life of me, I can’t figure out what the
public-safety issue is,” Seth said. “I mean, is a small child going to walk too
near to your lights and be vaporized?” [Full Story]
There is going to be hell to pay for this, just wait till her supervisors
found out she said “Merry Christmas.”
