Car towing by traffic police

[Madplayer]

The Fever, the rage, the feeling of powerlessness that turns good men cruel. Experienced it myself today and it made me question my ability to control my anger.

Here is what happened. I parked my car outside an ATM, hardly 5 feet from the door. I got out of the car and went in to take some cash out of the ATM. How much time does it take to money out of an ATM? 2 or 3 minutes? Just as i got out the feeling of shock and disbelief gripped me. I saw my car towed to some big traffic police vehicle at quite a bit of distance. It was as if there were waiting for me to step out so they could take it away. I shouted and ran after it but it was too late. There was no "no parking" sign, there were no announcements on loud speakers which are supposed to be a part of the standard procedures before towing vehicles. I was infuriated.

I didnt know what to do. So i asked people on the street what i should do. They told me that there is some traffic police station half a kilometer away and thats where they keep all the towed vehicles.

So i walked the distance and reached their office. When i talked to the incharge, he told me it would be a Rs. 1100 fine but for me because i looked a good guy he would charge me just 750. I told him thats too much. I explained to him what had happened and at the end of the conversation he still said 750. In my anger, i gave him an earful. I felt like punching him in the eye for not understanding my problem. He got angry and shut his counter window on me.

I didnt pay the fine, i went to the traffic ssp's office which was at the same place. I explained it to her and she called the one who had towed my car. He wasn't available. She called another guy who is supposed to take photographs of the car before towing and he wasn't available either. So she simply asked them to reduce my fine to the minimum. Feeling helpless i decided to pay the minimum amount but when i went to that counter guy, he still asked me for 750. Fed up of all the non-sense i decided to pay. He gave me a receipt for it. When i reached my house, i picked the receipt up to throw it away but something caught my eye. In place of the "amount" on the receipt, there was written Rs. 500. That crook asked me for 750 and fined just 500. Means 250 went in his pocket. Needless to say my BP went from normal to 200 after seeing this. It was my mistake that i didnt check the reciept there and i feel it is too late to do anything about it.

How many of you have experienced something like this?

 

[JaDed]

Bro living in cold place u felt like this imagine us living in Chennai,Hyderabad with terrible summers.

Road rage is common in India ,jus last week two guys on road started fighting the milkman and autoguy and one of them threw a brick on other and person died on the spot.

Blindness in anger is a pretty common thing ,have seen people get all red and irrational on personal level this has never happened to me the blindness.

 

[sensible-indian-fan]

Third world countries gonna third world.

You should have first asked for what is the fine according to the law when they said "its 1100 but for you its 750".

 

[Madplayer]

Bro living in cold place u felt like this imagine us living in Chennai,Hyderabad with terrible summers.

Road rage is common in India ,jus last week two guys on road started fighting the milkman and autoguy and one of them threw a brick on other and person died on the spot.

Blindness in anger is a pretty common thing ,have seen people get all red and irrational on personal level this has never happened to me the blindness.

It is the worse. I agree it completely blinds you especially if you see that the other guy is acting like a tool.

Can i do something about the guy who fined me or is it too late and i should let it go?

 

[Madplayer]

Third world countries gonna third world.

You should have first asked for what is the fine according to the law when they said "its 1100 but for you its 750".

I did. He said it's for wrong parking and leaving the car unattended. I cant explain what my mind went through at that time because the street was almost empty (not much traffic) at that time and i left the car literally for not more than 3 minutes. And even after all that i decided to pay the fine and get the hell out only to be cheated by that crook.

 

[Yatoo]

The Fever, the rage, the feeling of powerlessness that turns good men cruel. Experienced it myself today and it made me question my ability to control my anger.

Here is what happened. I parked my car outside an ATM, hardly 5 feet from the door. I got out of the car and went in to take some cash out of the ATM. How much time does it take to money out of an ATM? 2 or 3 minutes? Just as i got out the feeling of shock and disbelief gripped me. I saw my car towed to some big traffic police vehicle at quite a bit of distance. It was as if there were waiting for me to step out so they could take it away. I shouted and ran after it but it was too late. There was no "no parking" sign, there were no announcements on loud speakers which are supposed to be a part of the standard procedures before towing vehicles. I was infuriated.

I didnt know what to do. So i asked people on the street what i should do. They told me that there is some traffic police station half a kilometer away and thats where they keep all the towed vehicles.

So i walked the distance and reached their office. When i talked to the incharge, he told me it would be a Rs. 1100 fine but for me because i looked a good guy he would charge me just 750. I told him thats too much. I explained to him what had happened and at the end of the conversation he still said 750. In my anger, i gave him an earful. I felt like punching him in the eye for not understanding my problem. He got angry and shut his counter window on me.

I didnt pay the fine, i went to the traffic ssp's office which was at the same place. I explained it to her and she called the one who had towed my car. He wasn't available. She called another guy who is supposed to take photographs of the car before towing and he wasn't available either. So she simply asked them to reduce my fine to the minimum. Feeling helpless i decided to pay the minimum amount but when i went to that counter guy, he still asked me for 750. Fed up of all the non-sense i decided to pay. He gave me a receipt for it. When i reached my house, i picked the receipt up to throw it away but something caught my eye. In place of the "amount" on the receipt, there was written Rs. 500. That crook asked me for 750 and fined just 500. Means 250 went in his pocket. Needless to say my BP went from normal to 200 after seeing this. It was my mistake that i didnt check the reciept there and i feel it is too late to do anything about it.

How many of you have experienced something like this?

In kashmir, you are helpless if you don't know any senior policewala/bureaucrat/minister.

 

[Yatoo]

Where did it happen? MA road?

 

[JaDed]

It is the worse. I agree it completely blinds you especially if you see that the other guy is acting like a tool.

Can i do something about the guy who fined me or is it too late and i should let it go?

Legally nothing, because he will claim u paid 500 only, other than that the only way is get another fine(another person) and record the process and put it up not sure how useful that would be as well.

 

[sensible-indian-fan]

I did. He said it's for wrong parking and leaving the car unattended. I cant explain what my mind went through at that time because the street was almost empty (not much traffic) at that time and i left the car literally for not more than 3 minutes. And even after all that i decided to pay the fine and get the hell out only to be cheated by that crook.

Happens.....move on bro.

Next time onwards, make sure to ask them specifically whether you will get a receipt for the exact same amount.

And hopefully, there is no next time for you.

 

[Syed1]

Dang desi people are too jazbati.

Just pay the fine and be done with it. I know you feel hard done by but saving Rs. 750 will not make you rich or spending Rs. 750 will not make you poor. Try to be more vigilant next time.

 

[ExpressPacer]

Dang desi people are too jazbati.

Just pay the fine and be done with it. I know you feel hard done by but saving Rs. 750 will not make you rich or spending Rs. 750 will not make you poor. Try to be more vigilant next time.

It's not about being made poorer or richer. It is about what is morally correct or not. The difference between right and wrong. I could be a billionaire but I would refuse to pay even $1 to anyone when I have not done anything wrong.

Also, I don't mean to say this directly to you, but when you earn money for yourself, even a single cent being taken out of your pocket unjustly feels like a pound of flesh.

 

[Madplayer]

Where did it happen? MA road?

Woah!!! Exactly there. I guess that area is where they hunt then??

 

[Madplayer]

Legally nothing, because he will claim u paid 500 only, other than that the only way is get another fine(another person) and record the process and put it up not sure how useful that would be as well.

I guess it would be better to move on now. Lesson learnt. I'd be more careful next time. Problem is parking facilities are poor to non existant in our part of the world so that makes it harder.

Happens.....move on bro.

Next time onwards, make sure to ask them specifically whether you will get a receipt for the exact same amount.

And hopefully, there is no next time for you.

Yes i think thats the right thing to do. I am glad at least i didnt do anything silly like getting into a fight with that guy that would have been childish.

 

[Madplayer]

Dang desi people are too jazbati.

Just pay the fine and be done with it. I know you feel hard done by but saving Rs. 750 will not make you rich or spending Rs. 750 will not make you poor. Try to be more vigilant next time.

I dont want to brag or anything but Money is not the issue here at all. Trust me on this. It's the way these guys go about their business. They dont follow SOPs, treat you like you're worthless just because they are in a powerful position and then in the end rip you off by taking more than what is required by law.

 

[Syed1]

It's not about being made poorer or richer. It is about what is morally correct or not. The difference between right and wrong. I could be a billionaire but I would refuse to pay even $1 to anyone when I have not done anything wrong.

Also, I don't mean to say this directly to you, but when you earn money for yourself, even a single cent being taken out of your pocket unjustly feels like a pound of flesh.

Yes that is correct, hard earned money when taken away unjustifiably hurts the most.

However, he did park in a "no parking zone" and should have just paid the fine when it was reduced to Rs. 750, or looked at the receipt when it was further reduced to Rs. 500. Would have saved himself the tension and blood pressure and by God none of us need that increased BP.

In the subcontinent we disregard those signs but much of the western world it is a norm to receive a ticket and/or have your car towed if you park in such a spot even if it was just 5 minutes.


It might be just 5 minutes for the person parking his car but imagine how he is blocking off one whole lane on a busy street and this may effect traffic for the entire route. Since the people in the blocked lane will have to merge in the other lanes to swerve past the parked car, this effectively creates a bottleneck at that point in the street.

I have done a little bit of traffic engineering in my line of work and know that even one person can cause traffic jam that lasts hours. One car slows down, the car behind him slows down harder so on and so forth until a car down the line comes to a dead stop and now you have a traffic jam.

 

[Syed1]

I dont want to brag or anything but Money is not the issue here at all. Trust me on this. It's the way these guys go about their business. They dont follow SOPs, treat you like you're worthless just because they are in a powerful position and then in the end rip you off by taking more than what is required by law.

Yes police and law enforcement agencies in the subcontinent think that its either their way or no way.

 

[Madplayer]

Yes that is correct, hard earned money when taken away unjustifiably hurts the most.

However, he did park in a "no parking zone" and should have just paid the fine when it was reduced to Rs. 750, or looked at the receipt when it was further reduced to Rs. 500. Would have saved himself the tension and blood pressure and by God none of us need that increase BP specially.

In the subcontinent we disregard those signs but much of the western world it is a norm to receive a ticket and/or have your car towed if you park in such a spot even if it was just 5 minutes.


It might be just 5 minutes for the person parking his car but imagine how he is blocking off one whole lane on a busy street and this may effect traffic for the entire route. Since the people in the blocked lane will have to merge in the other lanes to swerve past the parked car, this effectively creates a bottleneck at that point in the street.

I have done a little bit of traffic engineering in my line of work and know that even one person can cause traffic jam that lasts hours. One car slows down, the car behind him slows down harder so on and so forth until a car down the line comes to a dead stop and now you have a traffic jam.

I completely understand what you are saying. And i agree with it. But i guess u missed this part

"There was no "no parking" sign, there were no announcements on loud speakers which are supposed to be a part of the standard procedures before towing vehicles."

 

[Syed1]

I completely understand what you are saying. And i agree with it. But i guess u missed this part

"There was no "no parking" sign, there were no announcements on loud speakers which are supposed to be a part of the standard procedures before towing vehicles."

Then you are justifiably angry.

 

[Madplayer]

Then you are justifiably angry.

You wont believe what the ssp sahiba told me when i told her about the absence of no parking sign. She said , " sab ko pata hai ki kahin bhi park nahi kar saktey" (everyone knows that one can't park anywhere) it was unbelievable, i guess more so for me because this was my first time.

 

[Yatoo]

Woah!!! Exactly there. I guess that area is where they hunt then??

Yes.
There
Outside Sarah City centre
and Maybe regal chowk area too. But They have those parking lines near press colony and lambert lane within which they allow the cars.

 

[Bhaag Viru Bhaag]

In kashmir, you are helpless if you don't know any senior policewala/bureaucrat/minister.

This is true for other states and cities in India too.
[MENTION=131678]Madplayer[/MENTION] congrats for joining the 'Mamu ne Mamu banaya group'. We have all become shikaars of this 'Mamumiyat' atleast once in our life.