XPost: nyc.bicycles, nyc.personals, nyc.seminars 
 From: liberty@once.net 
  
 Fine mess in Brooklyn 
 Drivers miffed after 'No Parking' sign is mysteriously posted - and cars get 
 towed! 
 Originally published on September 1, 2006 
 BY PETE DONOHUE  DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER 
  
 David Bourgeois looks none too pleased that his Mini Cooper was fined and 
 towed after a "No Parking" sign was posted - but not by the city. 
  
 [Not by the city? This sounds like a BLATANT LIE. If not done by the city, 
 why were the police so quickly on the spot to tow the vehicles parked 
 there?] 
  
 Someone pulled a dumb move in DUMBO. A "No Parking" sign mysteriously 
 appeared on a stretch of Front St. in Brooklyn this week, prompting the 
 police to ticket and tow cars left there. 
  
 The only problem, the city Transportation Department said yesterday, is that 
 there are no parking restrictions on the south side of Front St., between 
 Washington and Main Sts. - and they have no idea who put up the official 
 sign. 
  
 [Yeah, sure!] 
  
 "This is crazy," cried towing victim David Bourgeois, a 38-year-old 
 freelance writer who lives in the neighborhood. 
  
 It was the latest twist in a Twilight Zone-like week for Bourgeois, who 
 parked his Mini Cooper on Front St. Sunday night when the sign - barring 
 parking from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays - wasn't there. 
  
 When he went to check on his wheels Wednesday morning, the sign was there - 
 and his car was gone. 
  
 He found his Mini in a police tow pound in Brooklyn Wednesday night. He paid 
 $205 to drive it to freedom. Adding insult to injury, a $60 parking ticket 
 was on the windshield. 
  
 "It's just outrageous," he said. "I'm definitely going to fight this." 
  
 DOT spokeswoman Kay Sarlin said the agency would work with the city Finance 
 Department to dismiss the ticket. An NYPD spokesman said officials were 
 looking into waiving the towing fee. 
  
 [Dismiss the ticket? They should be made to compensate each and every victim 
 of this attempted scam - $265 each, which is exactly what they attempted to 
 extort from them!] 
  
 Bourgeois wasn't the only victim of this dastardly deed done Down Under the 
 Manhattan Bridge Overpass. Area residents and workers said the sign appeared 
 Monday or Tuesday. 
  
 Earlier this week, Bruce Silverglade looked down at the street from his 
 famous gym, Gleason's, and saw the long arm of the law in action. 
  
 "They ticketed or towed quite a few vehicles," Silverglade said. 
  
 One of the victims was a Gleason's boxer who pleaded with a tow truck 
 operator to release his car, Silverglade said. His request was KOd. 
  
 Locals say that the Front St. stretch had been a small, but needed, oasis 
 from an ever-tightening noose of parking regulations and prohibitions. 
  
 Devon Cormack, 48, a boxing instructor, and Bobby Miles, 60, a fight 
 promoter, said it's become increasingly difficult to find parking in the 
 burgeoning neighborhood where condominium towers keep sprouting up. 
  
 "You can't park anywhere," Chrissy Beckles, a receptionist at Gleason's 
 said. "It's ridiculous." 
  
 A few spaces should be opening up soon, anyway - the city will take down the 
 Front St. sign, Sarlin said. 
  
 As for who put it up, DOT plans to investigate. 
  
 ["Investigate" - meaning COVER IT UP, and hope that the public and the media 
 forget about it.] 
  
 --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05 
  * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)