GUEST POST: Chicago so desperate for scratch it's towing citizens' cars for no reason

Guest post by Corinne

When you park your car in Chicago these days, be extra wary. Do a 360° examination of the premises - any poorly marked crosswalks? Or perhaps a singular construction cone nearby? Maybe, if you're really ignorant, you have a current parking sticker placed a little too close to an expired one on your dash?

Any of these will have you headed in a cab or the 151 Michigan Avenue bus to 400 Lower East Wacker, where the "Dark Knight" car chase scenes were filmed and your poor, innocent sedan now resides. It seems that the city has upped the ante on non-sensical tows and outrageous parking tickets. Look up the evidence for your parking ticket online and you'll usually see a photograph of your license plate. This type of evidence holds up hard in Chi-raq traffic court.

Better yet, citizens heading to work in the morning could have the unique rush of believing one's car was stolen. That, or just some good, old-fashioned Chicago city employee collusion.

"On the morning of August 12th, I came out to a wonderful surprise - my car was gone! I was parked on the corner of Sedgwick and Blackhawk (Right by the Purple/Brown line stop) in a public, free spot that I had parked in on two different occasions. At first, I thought my car was stolen, but I then asked a woman who was parked near my spot if she had seen a white Nissan Sentra get towed. She said that yes, she had seen my car get towed away. She stated that at first I was simply getting a ticket, but then a tow truck happened to be driving by at that exact time, so they decided to tow my car for being parked in the middle of a pedestrian crosswalk.

What turned out to be a $60 ticket ended up costing me another $200 after a fun trip to the depths of LEW. Now, let's be clear: this wasn't hindering anyone's ability to cross the street, and not once on three occasions of parking in this spot had I ever noticed a "crosswalk." There was absolutely no reason for my car to be towed, just another way for the city of Chicago to turn a minor traffic violation into major revenue. Love this city!"

In Chicago, stories like this are less and less unusual. But hey, shouldn't we support any methods that prevent Chi-raq from becoming the next Detroit?