AN OWNER found his car immobilized in a Denver neighborhood in August 2018.
Leo Harmon parked his vehicle before work, but later regretted his decision when he noticed the orange boot.
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Harmon parked his car in Denver, Colorado on August 29, 2018, according to the local NBC affiliate KUSA.
“Parking here is crazy. I mean, you get here after 8:30 and it’s literally a battle,” he told the outlet.
Despite seeing a yellow curb and lines on the road, Harmon parked his vehicle and went to work.
“There are these brackets,” Harmon said as he showed KUSA the yellow lines.
“But I thought it was okay.”
He then showed the outlet the orange warning left on his car.
“Here’s the actual warning. It’s an orange citation. It looks very official,” he said.
“Immobilization Warning. Do not attempt to move this car. This car is immobilized,” Harmon read.
GETTING THE BOOT
Harmon’s vehicle was immobilized with a small orange boot.
Harmon told the outlet, “When I first saw the claw on my car, I was super nervous. I thought, ‘Oh my God, didn’t I pay the fine? I promise, I paid for all my stuff.'”
However, he discovered that the parking notice came from a property owner and not the city of Denver.
“It was just a private resident who decided to steal my car,” he said.
He called the phone number listed in the warning eight times before anyone answered.
He told KUSA that a couple from the house across from the yellow-painted curb greeted him.
“The couple came out and told me that apparently this is a normal occurrence. They said, ‘We don’t want to charge you. We don’t want any hard feelings. We just want to have a conversation,'” Harmon recalled. .
According to Harmon, the couple removed the trunk of their car and explained that drivers often block the space that is actually their driveway.
“It looked like a parking space to me,” he told the outlet.
‘HUGE MISTAKE’
A spokeswoman for Denver Public Works said that because the curb was not cut, the city does not consider the space Harmon used as a driveway. City crews did not paint the curb or the yellow lines.
“Marley Bordovsky, director of prosecution and code enforcement for the Denver city attorney’s office, said the owner may have violated at least two city ordinances,” the news outlet continued.
Painting the curb and starting the car are against city law.
According to Bordovsky, loading a car on public property is basically motor vehicle theft and can become a crime if the trunk is left running for more than 24 hours.
The city attorney’s office said it would contact the owner, according to the outlet.
On August 30, 2018, a man who lives in the home told KUSAs that he had booted Harmon’s car and said he “made a big mistake.”
Are you covered by law for parking on public streets?
Parking on a public street is generally legal, even in front of someone’s home, experts say.
Unless the home is in an HOA subdivision, an apartment complex with assigned spaces, or there are laws against parking during certain days or times, it is not illegal to park a vehicle in front of someone’s home on a public street.
“Generally speaking, an individual citizen does not ‘own’ or have any continuing exclusive right to use a parking space on a public street,” he wrote Nolo Legal.
“These spaces are open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis.”
Most states have rules against vehicles parking in the same location for 72 hours, or blocking fire hydrants, driveways, and driveways, as a vehicle parked in these spaces presents a safety risk.
The man said he was tired of seeing drivers parking in front of the space he considers a driveway and used the trunk for the first time on the night of August 29 of that year.
On August 30, he discovered his actions were wrong after researching municipal laws.
He said he would not wear the boot again, according to the outlet.
“The problem won’t be solved if you continue to charge people’s cars,” Harmon said, referring to parking issues.
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This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
