by
Larry Sills
This isn't the biggest scam in the world. Nonetheless, Larry Sills wants people to be forewarned.
Last Saturday, Sills drove his wife and two other couples from the northwest suburbs to the Tigers afternoon game.
He was having a tough time finding parking since construction for the new hockey arena has taken away some lots around Woodward Avenue.
Finally, he got to Winder and Beaubien, east of Woodward, a few-minute walk from Comerica Park, and came upon a lot. It had no sign. But he said four guys who donned parking-lot like vests were waving people in the lot and directing them into spots.
"I pulled in the driveway and I rolled down my window and I said 'how much?' and he said '$20' and I, not hearing him, I said '10?' and he remarked, 'no no no. All the lots are charging 20.'"
So he forked over $20. Some people in his group joked that it might not be legit, but he said he had no reason to believe it wasn't. In fact, at least one of the guys had a plastic badge hanging around his neck.
So after the game, the group he was with returned to the lot. The attendants were gone.
"Everyone in that lot had tickets" for parking on a "city lot," he said.
While the lot didn't have the name of a parking company, he says, "it wasn't marked 'no parking.'"
He said he was in shock.
"Not in shock to learn it was scam," he said. "Not in shock, nor mad whatsoever to learn that some guy...scammed us along with three other guys, and we gave them $20 to park in that lot. That didn't upset us at all. But that we get tickets for doing it. So police knew to come" to the neighborhood to check for the violation.
Sills wonders why the police weren't able to catch the scammers in the act, and instead, only went after the people who had been scammed.
Sills says he plans to contest the ticket.
"I was scammed. I wanted to pay $20 to park, not $65. I was scammed by the city. If I was scammed by those guys, the city needs to go after them, not me. "
June West, director of communications for the Detroit Police Department, said Tuesday night: "We're investigating this."
She adds:
"People do need to be careful where they park because there are scams that go on. People need to make sure they're parking in licensed lots or marked parking spaces if they're on the street. If the sign says 'No Parking," it means no parking."
