Finding the right spot to park a car in a bustling city can be an aggravating affair. A man thought that he had found a free parking spot and legally put his car there. But then overnight, he received a ticket on his windscreen after city officials allegedly painted over the white lines of his space in a different color to show that it wasn’t free anymore.
The white lines in the man’s parking spot were allegedly painted over in blue
Stefano Angeloni had legally parked his car on a street in Rome but then found that his parking spot was allegedly changed overnight, according to a video he posted on Instagram on July 6 that has since garnered over a million views.
In the city, white lines around a parking spot mean that the space is free of charge. However, those lines were freshly painted over in blue, meaning that the driver needed to pay for parking. That’s why Angeloni found a ticket that cost €29.40 (that’s about $33 in the US) on his car.
Yet the video shows that the lines underneath the wheels of his car where still white, suggesting that his vehicle was parked legally from the start. Talk about a bait and switch.
“Look at this fantastic parking spot I found,” he says, as translated by The Mirror. “I leave my car in a white-lined space; then, one night, they come by and paint over the white lines with blue ones. Obviously, they couldn’t paint underneath my car — or anyone else’s — so the white lines I parked in are now blue.”
“The result? A nice fat fine,” he said sarcastically. “Fantastic, right? We’re in a fantastic city.”
If the color of the lines are all that matter, one commenter had a bright idea to turn his parking spots free in the future.
“You gave me a great idea,” the user wrote. “I will never pay for parking again, but rather buy a can of white paint and a brush, so I can sign up for my lifetime free parking membership.”
