In Atlanta, parkers were made painfully aware of the effort criminals will make to steal their money. According to 11alive.com, a crew of criminals posed as parking lot attendants took parking fees and booting fees from unsuspecting tourists. Now, tourists are usually unsuspecting, but these had little chance of discovering the scam before they were swindled.
“There were signs saying event parking and there were gentlemen by the road and another in further here at the parking lot waving us in,” Barbara Wright of Asheville, N.C. said. “When we got to the second guy he said park right in here.”
But later, once they spotted the boots on their vehicles, the victims began to suspect they had been hustled – paying $20 each for special parking and $75 to get out of the special parking.
It’s pretty generous of Ms. Wright to refer to the thieves as “gentlemen,” especially because there is little chance she’s getting back her money. Most of the victims reported being surprised by the elaborate set up. I can understand their feelings. One perpetrator can do enough damage in a parking lot, but a cast of criminals is a new thing. Not only that, but the crooks staged their heist in broad daylight – a heist that lasted long enough for “patrons” to leave their vehicles for whatever activity they had planned and come back to find their cars booted. That’s brazen for you.
The victims said there’s got to be a better way to catch imposters using real parking lots.
I’m curious what that “better way” would be. There is no protocol for identifying “real” parking lot attendants. Maybe there could be.
Read the article here.
2 Responses
There are a myriad effective means of either identifying or preventing this despicable act. It happened on a few occasions in the municipality I worked for 22 years. 1. UNIFORMS And PICTURE ID worn on a lanyard. Yes, the peeps can make their own up however what we found in the past was that these “gentlemen” we caught were indecent capitalizing on a spontaneous opportunity in a lot not normally used for all wr events. 2. The venue and city along with the promoter should market and promote which parking lots or garages are designated parking areas for the event. This can be as easy as placing the notification on or with the prepaid event tickets, highlighting it on the website and requesting PA’s on local media outlets. 3. Offer prepaid parking with the tickets which takes cash completely out of the equation. 4. All events had a law enforcement traffic detail who would patrol lots and facilities when not actively directing traffic or working traffic signals. Pre-event operation/coordination meetings could include the parking operator providing maps to all law enforcement, traffic control personnel working the event and event managers. Maps would detail entry/exit lanes, lot open/close times etc. 5. All signage could be uniform in that the include Lot number, the city or operator logo and fee. Disclaimer could be included requiring the parking receipt be left on dashboard for lot audits and proof of payment. 6. A roving attendant could be part of the staff operating plan to specifically drive around the unattended lots with a radio to call if they found a lot being sold that wasn’t in the plan. The could call a supervisor or police officer on the event detail to ascertain it was being legally operated.
All these ideas are not specifically a cure however they could be a good preventive measure
One last idea……if feasible put up barriers with or without gate. Barriers could be eco friendly wooden posts placed vertically in the ground approx 4-5 apart, leaving room for entry and exit and a simple chain to close and lock the lot when not being used. Chain could be removed after all events. Obviously everything depends on use of lot between events