We had a VERY interesting day today! We went downtown Houston to a march against the NAU. That was very uneventful...we did our duty and showed our support with the many other concerned citizens that were attending. We finished up and were leaving when we got a call from one of our Ron Paul supporter friends telling us they were still in the parking lot they had parked in and they all had "boots" on their cars. When we got over to where they were there were two of our friends cars with the boots and numerous other people gathered around along with two police cars. There was a total of 7 cars booted at that time. The story from ALL of these people was that they had paid the parking attendant their money when they got parked and then got back to find their cars booted and notices saying they had to pay $100 each to get the boots taken off! The guy that took their money was wearing the same parking attendant shirts the guys trying to take their $100 was wearing. The manager of the parking lot was called by the police and they tried to reason with the owners...we even offered to pay them the parking fee so they wouldn't be out money but they said NO...we want the $100. The parking attendant was a MAJOR jerk. These people are going to be taken to court over this. The police told us this happens ALL WEEK LONG. There was some workers across the street that were asking what was going on over there. They told us that before we all had gotten there that they had already collected $100 for 6-8 cars that day! The police told us they couldn't do anything about it because it was private property. Well, being the stubborn group that we were, people weren't paying. One guy started taking his tire off of his car to get the boot off...the parking attendant starts running over to his car to boot the other tires! We all ran over to the guys car and stood in front of his tires so he couldn't put the boot on. One of the gals in our group called a judge she knew who told her it was illegal for private citizens to boot someone's car. They had to be the city or deputized or have a permit from the city. This guy would run to another car and try to boot it again! Well, we've been down there all day well past dark. The one guy was able to get his boot off and the parking attendant tried to block his car in with his car but we stood in the way. The police were all there...by this time, there were 5 police cars there and about 8 officers! They were mainly there to make sure things didn't get out of hand. We assured them that we weren't going to push, shove, or touch anyone but we weren't getting out of their way either. We won a victory when that guy changed his tire and drove away. Even a police officer was secretly happy to see us get that boot off! Incidentally, this particular guy that got the boot off was a stranger and not from our Ron Paul group. When he left, he said he was definately voting for Ron Paul after spending that time with us! The next car we tried to free they had managed to get two boots on and we weren't able to get it off. Another guy in our group ended up paying the $100 so that he can file suit. We have all the contact info of all the people there and that company will be hearing from us again. The parking attendant had called a tow truck...the tow truck was actually there and telling us how much money he makes there a week! He thought it was all funny...they were just about to tow a car that the unsuspecting owners hadn't even gotten back to yet. They had added another boot to that car too because they didn't know it wasn't one of our people's cars. About this time, the local FOX 26 NEWS reporter showed up. He was asking us our stories and then was walking over to the parking attendants and they both jumped in their cars and drove off!! Even the tow truck drivers was gone before I knew what was happened. Those two parking attendants kept circle-ing the block waiting for the reporter to leave before they came back! I was interviewed and our good friend Mark...there was a small segment about it on the FOX 26 NEWS at 9 news tonight. Well, this is a huge scam going on downtown Houston parking lots. Even if they aren't planting fake attendents there themselves, they know its going on and aren't doing anything about it or warning people because they are making a butt-load of money off of this. The police themselves said this goes on ALL the time. They made about $1600 today alone off of this scam. Anyway, it was unbelievable to me but there's going to be a lawsuit filed against this company. Oh, and by the way, the unsuspecting owner that they were about to tow away...once the media showed up, they removed the boot and that car was still sitting there when we left. Little do they know, we saved them $100 ... they probably take the boots off if the owners have come back by the time their read to go home for the night...hmmmph
Our Ron Paul group is going to bring Thanksgiving dinner to the officers. They were talking about how they work 12 hour days and they will be working on Thanksgiving. We got the hint that they like "fried" turkeys! lol
Whew...not how I expected to spend my day but getting the boot off that one car was worth it all. They get away with this crap because people take it.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!
