A driver purposefully went out of his way to “waste the time” of a parking inspector this week as frustration around parking fines and limited parking spaces escalates.
Parking has long been a contentious issue on Aussie roads, and with built-up areas becoming increasingly congested, copping a parking fine is a huge sore point for motorists.
Max Dimarco’s frustration played out in St Leonards, Sydney when he spotted a parking inspector near his car this week.
He told Yahoo News he saw a parking inspector floating around the vehicle parked in front of him, taking photos of it and visibly waiting to issue a fine as soon as metered parking kicks in at 8.30am.
“I realised there were only 15 minutes until parking started… She just sort of stood there and waited by the car in front of me,” he told Yahoo.
Max decided he wanted to be “petty” and waited until the very last minute before getting out of his car and paying, for his car and for the one in front.
“I waited until 8.29, and when I paid for my own parking, I used their number plate and topped up theirs,” he said. “One for the good guys.”
“The parking inspector looked at her machine, and you could tell she was a bit like, for f**k sake, it kind of wasted her time.”
It cost him $8 and he said it was totally worth it.
“This might be my new favourite hobby,” he captioned the Tiktok video.
Drivers wage war on parking inspectors on Aussie roads
It’s not the first time a driver has deliberately gone out of their way to mess with a parking inspector trying to issue a fine.
A woman and a parking inspector got into a wild confrontation in Sydney’s Double Bay last year after the driver claimed she’d “just parked” her car and was paying for a ticket when the inspector arrived to fine her.
A wild confrontation erupted between a parking inspector and driver in Sydney’s Double Bay last June. Source: Facebook
Drivers were also caught splashing water onto the tyres of parked cars in a bid to remove the chalk-marks put there by parking inspectors.
However, criminal lawyer Avinash Singh told Yahoo News it’s an offence that can cop a fine of up to $750.
A driver also told Yahoo News she copped a $115 fine in Melbourne while “unlocking her car”.
“I just got very frustrated knowing that I could’ve moved the car faster than he gave me the ticket and opened up the space again,” the driver said in April last year.
Max believes it’s moments like this that result in drivers having a low tolerance of parking inspectors, claiming consideration would go a long way.
“They’re just doing their job, but there’s got to be some kind of morals with it… Where they understand there’s different situations and life can happen,” he said.
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