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Screwed DUMBO driver speaks!

By Ben Muessig
The Brooklyn Paper
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The Brooklyn Paper / Ben Muessig
The owner of this Ford, which got a ticket even though it was legally parked before the city changed the signs on her, told The Brooklyn Paper that the ticket is a sham.

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A law-abiding DUMBO driver whose car was ticketed on Monday after the city installed new parking signs says the $115 citation is “unfair.”

Ines Rios, a maintenance supervisor at a special needs school, parked her car in a legal spot on Washington Street between Front and Main streets at around 5:30 am on Monday — the same spot she takes at the same time every day.

But five hours later, as The Brooklyn Paper reported exclusively on Monday, Department of Transportation workers installed signs that changed the alternate-side-of-the-street parking zone into a two-hour parking area and a “no standing zone” that snared Rios’s green Ford.

When Rios returned to her car at around 3:30 pm, the city had already fined her $115 for not moving the vehicle from what was a legal spot when she took it in the first place.

“It’s not right,” said Rios. “When I parked here, the sign wasn’t even up. This is unfair. They shouldn’t ticket people right after they put the signs up. How was I supposed to know I had to move my car?”

Rios plans to fight the ticket.

The Department of Transportation declined to comment, but a police source told The Brooklyn Paper that she should plead not guilty and send her ticket to traffic court with an explanation that signage had been changed.

“The court has information on what streets they changed and the times and dates,” the source said.

This isn’t the first time that the city has ticketed drivers immediately after changing parking rules. Last year, Williamsburgers protested against the tickets they received just hours after signs were changed on Kent Avenue. Those tickets were eventually overturned.

©2009 The Brooklyn Paper

←DUMBO: DUMBO surprise! Boy, this guy got screwed!
→Kelso brewer discovers that no good pint goes unpunished!

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