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The maroon Ford Escort that has been sitting on an entrance ramp to the Brooklyn–Queens Expressway for at least two weeks, still hasn’t been towed away.

The Brooklyn Paper called 311 on Feb. 16 after first spotting the automobile on a traffic island near Doughty Street, and was told that the wreck would be removed by the Department of Sanitation within 72 hours.

When that didn’t happen, we called the Parks Department, which administers some city traffic islands. The agency’s spokesman said he would “notify the NYPD.”

A spokesman for the Department of Transportation — which has been known to tow away a car now and again — said the wreck was definitely a Sanitation matter because the car had no license plates.

A major breakthrough occurred on Feb. 23, when a Sanitation Deparment “condemned property” sticker was slapped on the car, four days past the 72-hour promise. But the DOS contracts out the job of actually towing away abandoned or derelict cars to outside vendors, said spokesman Matthew Lipani.

“The information is given to a private vendor, who than will then put it on his own schedule to retrieve the abandoned vehicle.”

And that, dear readers, still has not happened.

It’s 12 days — and counting — since we called 311 and five since the Department of Sanitation tagged the car.

But be warned: don’t park your licensed and registered car there — that will probably be towed in minutes.

Update: On Thursday, March 1, our spotters reported that the car had finally been towed away.

©2007 Community Newspaper Group