Lucky Friday

August 2011, I met some friends for dinner in Little Italy. We met at a place called Cafe Diplomatico. What's great about this restaurant is the patio and in the summer, a patio is where you want to meet friends for a good meal. I parked my car on Clinton Street (checked the street for parking restriction signs and all seemed good). But sometimes free parking is full of surprises.

Courthouse Coin

After a few hours of good food and good conversation, it was time to go. We left the Cafe and headed to my car. I was giving one of my friends a drive home and when we started to drive away, I noticed something on my windshield. I stopped, got out of the car, pulled the piece of paper out from under my windshield wipers and was shocked to see a parking ticket. Seems that Clinton Street has a hidden fire hydrant and I found it. And do you know what the fine is for parking in front of a fire hydrant? It's $100. I never saw the fire hydrant when I parked the car. I went back the next day with camera in hand and took photos of the fire hydrant that was situated behind a short iron fence on someone's front lawn and difficult to spot. There were no signs that a fire hydrant was there. The next day at work, I bitched about this ticket to my workmates. We went on google maps found photos of this hidden fire hydrant. I decided to fight this ticket.

Here we are 18 months later - my day in court. I came equipped with photos. The officer that issued the ticket didn't show so the judge dismissed it and I was free to go without needing to show my photos or to pay the fine. I was so happy.

Now you're probably wondering what does this have to do with street coins. I parked my car in a lot near the courthouse. When I was paying for parking, I noticed a penny (1984) near the parking meter. This was a lucky penny as I found it before I went into the courthouse and then got off the parking ticket.

Total find: 1¢.