There are major parking problems in many parts of California. With too many cars inside of a limited area it can take hours to find a park space. There are many private parking lots out there that charge as high as $20 an hour. Some of these lots are gated and require you to pay before you are able to leave the parking lot while others simply have a parking attendant that walks around and charges people for parking. Many times these parking attendants won’t see the person parking their car and will leave a bill for them under their windshield. Some of them have egos and will even write pricey tickets to cars that they feel are breaking their rules or did not pay prior to parking.
The State of California allows private parking companies to ticket cars which were parked on their property. However, most people don’t realize that they are not obligated to pay these parking tickets. Unpaid parking tickets received in a private parking lot will never go against your drivers license or your vehicle’s registration. If you look carefully at the fine print on this ticket it will say that its not a state issued ticket and that it won’t go against your license or registration. They make this print really small so people won’t read it and pay the ticket out of fear that they will be penalized by the DMV.
They have very little recourse to force you to pay these tickets. However, they can either tow or boot your car if you attempt to park in their private lots again.
For several months I would park in this one parking lot next to the mall that was between two banks, a Wells Fargo and a Citibank. There were always parking attendants in this lot that attempted to charge you $6 for parking in this lot. They were required to provide 30 minutes of free parking to anyone using either bank. I have accounts at both banks and sometimes when I go into these banks I will come out and there will be a $65 ticket on my car stating that I did not pre-pay for parking. I will dispute this with the attendant, but they will not cancel the ticket. So I parked there anyway and over time I accumulated over 20 parking tickets which I did not pay.
One day I returned to my car to find that the right front wheel had been immobilized by a Denver Boot.
The Denver Boot was invented by a Colorado musician as a means to immobilize the vehicles of people who failed to pay their parking tickets. The idea is that instead of towing the vehicle, which requires time, space and expense, booting can force someone to pay quickly and easily.
I walked around to the back of my car and examined the bright orange parking boot. I noticed that a large orange plate was covering the lug nuts to prevent the car owner from simply removing the wheel and tire, putting on a spare, and then driving away. A short prong pressed against the tire holding the boot in place. The clamp had a padlock encased in a quarter inch of hardened steel and was positioned inside the wheelwell so it would be hard to reach with heavy tools.
I knew that the boot could easily be cut off using either an angle grinder or a propane torch, but I did not have either of tools on hand. I also knew that liquid nitrogen could be used to freeze the metal making it easy to break or thermite could be used to burn the metal into liquid. However, I did not have either of these available.
I found that removing the boot without any tools was quite simple. I noticed that the prongs holding the boot in place was attached to the tire. So I let the air out of the tire and was able to slide the prongs off the tire, partially exposing the hubcab. At this point I could have removed half of the lug nuts, but that would not do me much good because I would still not be able to remove the rest of the lugs and remove the wheel. I tried pulling the boot off the wheel completely, but it would not come off. So I got behind the wheel of the car and drove it backwards a few inches, the bottom of the boot hit the street and the torque of the wheel against the boot popped the boot of the wheel completely.
I was free and I drove away laughing with the boot in my car and later pitched the boot into a dumpster knowing that I got the last laugh. I won’t park there anymore because next time they will resort to towing my car now that they know I can defeat their parking boots. However if I see anyone else booted in this parking lot I will share this secret with them.
I hate Parking Tix with a Passion + the Idiots that write them* In Toronto it’s nothing but a Cash Grab cuz there is NO Street Parking after Midnight* Prixx*
Love dat 350Z!! Make mine Black too + Cabriolet!!
;PPP xoxo
p.s. Do U do Anything LEGAL Natalie!!! Yer Hilarious!! god love ya Darlin’!!
this post made my day…f… the parking authority
We don’t use the boot here in SC, but if I’m ever somewhere where they do, I will DEFINITELY keep this post in mind.
Holy crap, I didn’t even know what a Denver Boot was. So I set out to read all about ‘em. Yes there are ways to defeat the das boot and you performed one of them perfectly. Now the bad news, your busted pal, we will be over in the morning to collect you for jail and confiscate your car.
No seriously, don’t das boots scratch up the wheels. What if you had a really really expensive set of custom wheels?
Love the blog. Big Pops.
Yes, they can scratch up your wheels. You must be very careful how you install them and even more careful in terms of how you remove them.
Doing the trick above has the potential of scratching the hell out of your nice set of wheels.
I never had an idea what Denver Boot was so, I decided to read this post of yours… Pretty crap! You made me laugh…Knowing what you did just to remove the boot on your wheel… Smart Indeed!…
Very cool that you got that off. Did you mention whether you guys have traffic cams?
Great story.
You have quite a crafty mind to figure that out.
How were you able to do this without anybody seeing you?
Congratulations! This story brightened my day.
BTW: You have an awesome blog.
Bada$$ blog you got here. Thanks for dropping your card! Stop by any time. =)
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yea these boots are really bad…….its great that these aren’t found here in this part of the world.
I did not know that you do not have to pay parking tickets in a parking lot.
So how where you able to remove the boot without someone coming by to ask what you were doing? Or the parking attendant that was ticketing you?
That’s baddass. I love it!
I bought a 350Z the year they came out in 03. I think I would’ve had the boot professionally removed before I risked damaging the rim, I treated that car like a first born
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I don’t know, but it seems like they would 1) know they put a boot on your car, 2) that you never came to pay your ticket, and 3) where you live. So I ask, what would stop they from writing you a large fine for destruction of city property?
It’s not city property, it’s private property, owned by the shady parking lot. I would have just left it in their lot so that they couldn’t potentially press charges for theft, though.
I wonder if one of those boots would fit on a 37″ tire….
You can’t cut jack shit with propane, and you’re not going to shatter anything with liquid nitrogen either. Time to cut down on hollywood movies dumbass.
Acetylene torches are generally better for cutting, however an oxygen-propane cutting torch would also do the trick.
I don’t know about liquid nitro, however thermite would eat through that thing like acid.
I have an Unofficial background as a Locksmith. Most tool suppliers of locksmiths sell a one time hole saw for drilling out the pins in a tubular, or vending machine lock that they cannot pick, or defeat. IT will attach to any cordless drill. Also they sell a drill jig to drll the pins out at the “Shear Line” in a conventional pin tumber lock. These can be found on the internet, and almost anyone can buy them. The boot must use either a tubular lock, or a conventional one sided pin tumber lock. This way will desroy the lock. However the boot will be unharmed assuming it is removed properyly. It taked about one minute to drill out a lock with practice.
I have an Unofficial background as a Locksmith. Most tool suppliers of locksmiths sell a one time hole saw for drilling out the pins in a tubular, or vending machine lock that they cannot pick, or defeat. It will attach to any cordless drill. Also they sell a drill jig to drill the pins out at the “Shear Line” in a conventional pin tumbler lock. These can be found on the Internet, and almost anyone can buy them. The boot must use either a tubular lock, or a conventional one sided pin tumbler lock. This way will destroy the lock. However the boot will be unharmed assuming it is removed properly. It takes about one minute to drill out a lock with practice.
no one should have the right to mess with or imobilize your vehicle. towing it for unpaid tickets or being parked illegally is one thing, but putting these devices on cars should not be allowed. it’s a clear violation of your rights. everyone should cut these off whenever they see them regardless of whether or not it’s your car.
I really like this blog, keep up the good work
You people like to work too much. Where I am a university uses the orange boot despite the law not allowing it. They use the padlock through the wrench hole. Me I remove the boot in about twenty seconds. Pull the bolt cutters from the trunk about 20.00; cut the lock then use a sparkplug socket to remove the boot; you can get the all in one t-handle sparkplug wrench for about 5.00.
A more sneaky way it to use a shim to pop the lock open and then remove the boot. I really screwed with them one day by removing the boot and putting it on another car LMFAO on that one; the parking guard almost got their butt kicked…..More LMFAO….
that’s awesome! i love the idea of putting the boot on another car. it would be even funnier if you put it on a security vehicle. by the way what university do you go to?