Whatever happened to the senior citizen who got charged for topping up strangers parking meters?

Should be legal.

Officials who supported charging the person doing this, should be removed from office and not let back in. And should pay damages to everyone impacted.

This is the only thing that I could find on your Senior Citizen. It was in LA in 1997.

Now, this happened in Chicago back in 2009. It was the most recent that I could find but not a Senior Citizen. Where I live they took out the meters years ago in exchange for public parking garages. We do have limited free parking spaces in front of some of the stores. When those run out, you pay to park in a garage. We’re a tiny town & the walk really isn’t that bad.

I knew someone who would remove a ticket another car got for illegally parking and placed the ticket on her car, the idea being that she could then not get a ticket. Now that must be illegal!

I remember the incident, @RedDeerGuy1 and I think that the samaritan was, in fact, cited and fined for topping up the meter.

The theory, if I remember correctly, was NOT about the 10 cents or the 25 cents that was involved, but rather that the city had a municipal interest in having open spaces for shoppers, and by one person tying up a space (and feeding the meter), it was acting against the city’s interest in a vibrant and active downtown.

This makes sense. One person hogging a meter is a disincentive for other people to come and shop.

I have done this myself in the parking row across from an office I used to work in.

See the Arlington city parking meter regulations. In particular the bottom one:

In all other cases, it is unlawful to pay for additional time at a meter after the maximum time limit has been reached.

Along this thought line, is the title “meter maid” still used, or is it considered sexist?

I could see if there was a maximum time for a particular parking spot. Even then people often just move their car to another spot. But other than that, this law you’re not even exist! This is so crazy that somebody out of the goodness of their heart would want to put some extra change in a meter for somebody and risk being arrested or fined.

What? I have put money in an expired meter to try to help someone not get a ticket. How can that be illegal?

Parking 3 hours in a 2 hour parking spot is completely different. I don’t even think I have ever seen limits on time when there is a meter.

Even in a place where there is a time limit per spot, one Samaritan feeding a meter occasionally is not going to have a significant impact on parking availability in an area.

Prosecuting someone for trying to do something kind for strangers, is terrible.

This brings to mind a story of two older ladies in a state, but I can’t remember which one it was, who were doing TNR for stray cats. In case you don’t know, TNR stands for trap, neuter, release. They actually got arrested because people complained they were doing that. Our society is failing big time.