http://www.chicagosuntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-nopark04.html

Fine mess they've parked themselves into

September 4, 2006

NEW YORK -- Dude, where's my car? And what's that No Parking sign
doing here?

Several Brooklyn residents woke up to find their street empty --
because someone had posted a No Parking sign and police had towed
their rides.

The sign, which bans parking on a street in the DUMBO neighborhood --
an acronym for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass -- from 8 a.m.
to 6 p.m. weekdays, mysteriously appeared Monday or Tuesday, residents
said, and then police started ticketing and towing cars parked there.

But the Transportation Department says there aren't any restrictions
in the area, and it doesn't know who posted the official-looking
placard.

'It's just outrageous'

Resident David Bourgeois said he had to pay $205 to retrieve his Mini
Cooper, with a $60 ticket on the windshield, from a police pound
Wednesday after it was hauled away.

''It's just outrageous,'' he told the Daily News for Friday editions.

The Transportation Department said it would try to dismiss the ticket
-- and take down the No Parking sign.