NBC Employee Smacked With Surprising Fine, Sparking Investigation

One city is in an uproar as a news station continues to look into frustrating policies that are upsetting citizens — including the news station’s employees.

NBC7, NBC’s affiliate in San Diego, recently exposed a ridiculous parking policy targeting anyone using one of the city’s paid parking spots.

An NBC employee legally parked in a paid two-hour parking spot. After the two-hour period was up, the male news station worker, who was not identified in the report, paid for two more hours at the metered spot. However, San Diego parking officials still smacked him with an $85 parking ticket for staying longer than two hours — while also still collecting his money for the second two-hour period.

This incident sparked an inquiry from NBC7 reporters, with a San Diego official telling the outlet, “Continuing to pay the meter beyond the max stay limit does not make it legally parked.”

So basically, you can’t park anywhere longer than two hours, no matter what. The California city will also happily take the cash for a parking extension, without warning the driver that they’re breaking the law. Plus, they will still likely receive a ticket.

This is just the latest parking issue to hit San Diego in recent weeks. Locals have been in an uproar after receiving tickets for parking in their own driveways and unknowingly parking within 20 feet of unmarked crosswalks.

This NBC employee’s parking fee issue sparked another wave of backlash against San Diego’s parking polices. Instagram users ripped the city’s lack of signage, lack of warning when illegally extending parking time and just overall lack of foresight on how the policy affects law-abiding citizens who want to legally pay and extend their city outings.

“You literally have to drive around the block and look for a different spot,” one person wrote. “It makes no sense if I’m paying for it either way.”

A second person commented, “So if you wanna be somewhere longer than 2 hours, you need to drive around to find a different meter? Just adding to traffic. Cool cool cool.”

Another person wrote, “Ah, another way to rip people off very impressive San diego.”