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Hmm: Is the penalty for fraudulent use of a resident parking permit less than $200?

Interesting ad on Craigslist right now:

Looking for a South End Parking Permit for 2014. Work in the area with pay per day parking garage and looking to see if anybody who lives in the South End who doesn't have parking permit would like to get one and sell.

Willing to pay $200 cash for the 2014 year.

H/t Johnson.

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Comments

Remember all those threads about uncivilized things happening to cars parked in Southie following snowstorms? Yeah, I can see where this is headed.

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Don't they have to match the license plate on the car to be valid?

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When I've got them, the clerk giving them out has written the license plate number on with a Sharpie. It's not hard to get the number off, and put a new number on. I won't say how it's done, but it's very simple to change the number.

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C3H8O.

I still don't condone this kind of thing. Just ride a bike or pay for your parking.

In fact I think I'm gonna email him that in reply to the ad.

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C3H6O is our friend too........ ,

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I guess this is one data point which puts a market value on what a resident parking permit may be worth? $200/year. Pretty cheap if you ask me.

It should be no surprise that when you give away something valuable (street parking permits) for nothing, you end up with weird black market transactions like this.

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A spot in a garage in the area cost $350/mo the last time I checked (about four years ago before I decided to sell the car and rent or use Zipcar when I needed). Of course that's 24-hour covered parking with a guaranteed spot so more attractive to the buyer but the permit seller needs to be compensated for the loss of the permit plus potential criminal liability. It'd take at least $2000/year for me to work up any interest.

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I'm pretty sure the parking enforcement people never actually look at the stickers. They drive down the street and scan the plate (maybe not anymore?) enter the plate number into the computer and see if the plate number is registered to the neighborhood. If its not in the system they give you a ticket even if you have the sticker on the car.

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BPD no longer uses the plate scanners while BTD still does. The data they collect is different.

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It just doesn't connect to the registry or CJIS

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When BTD's plate scanners go by and the plate doesn't match a recorded valid sticker the fraudster will still get a ticket in the mail. If this happens on a regular enough basis the boot will follow along with a fraud investigation.

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Why do they mail a ticket, instead of printing one and leaving it on the windshield?

It's scary that a sticker is no longer proof that you can park. This means the BTD could suspend your permit electronically in their computer, and you'd have no way of knowing.

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that people who work there are willing to commit fraud (in which they will certainly be caught for the reasons articulated above) to park a car there tells me everything I need to know about the reliability of the T. Good grief.

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Yeah because if someone is willing to commit a crime it must be the fault of some system or something other than personal responsibility, right?

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Shh... you'll take away all the excuses from bleeding hearts.

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When my car got totaled I forgot to remove the parking sticker and the clerk gave me a bad time about it before giving me a new one. I had to sign a warning about not doing it again but got the new sticker. I suspect for just this reason. You need a car duly registered in the neighborhood to get a sticker. Why anyone would give it up for $200? Both the guy who gets caught using the sticker and one selling it are likely to have some very bad days with the City if they play this game and it'll likely cost them a lot more than paying the monthly parking charges.

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That is interesting, Grant....how were you supposed to "remove" the sticker from your totaled car? I just removed the old resident parking sticker to replace it with the current one. It took me 15 minutes of serious scraping with a single edge blade to get that thing off my car window - they are just not made to be removed! The clerk makes it sound like it's easy to just "remove" it!! Are you supposed to bring the tattered remains to them to prove that it was removed....? Agreed, that it's not worth $200 to someone to take the chance of prosecution for fraud....

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The RMV's plate return receipt for the totalled car, or receipt that you transferred the plates to a new car, should be enough for the BTD.

Do they really think it's possible to take off the old sticker and sell it?

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I had my back window replaced a few years ago and went in without the shards and the clerk absolutely refused to give me the sticker (I had owned the same condo for about 15 years). I went upstairs to get help from my district councilor's legislative aid and she told me there was nothing she could do - they've tried in the past and transportation will refuse to replace the sticker without the old one.

One thing they do need to do is enforce the rule that these need to be stuck to the window to be valid - I occasionally see them taped on which would be a huge red flag for me that it's a forgery - maybe something as simple as a color copy.

PS - if you are scraping off your sticker - try to avoid your rear defroster - you cut one of those lines and you end up with a half defrosted window. The heating elements are usually taped on the window - not embedded in the glass.

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You're supposed to be able to remove them by pulling from a corner or something, but the first time I tried it it was mess. When you do, some lettering is supposed to appear making it clear they've been removed. The defroster problem is why you see so many older cars with tons of stickers, Getting them off can mess with your defroster so people just add the new one. IMO, they should put them somewhere else, like a rear passenger side window or above the Inspection sticker where you can remove them without damaging anything. It's the kind of bureaucratic stupid that makes people hate City Hall.

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if you are scraping off your sticker - try to avoid your rear defroster

Precisely the reason I laminate and tape my resident sticker to the back window -- so it can be removed and replaced the following year without damaging the defroster elements or ending up looking like this. Never had it challenged, maybe because, as noted above, BTD basically ignores the sticker and just scans the plates against their database.

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$200 NO WAY, minimun $2500, it's also for 4 years depending when you request them

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