The “Status Hunter” Facebook page with over 139,000 ‘likes’ has words of praise for chareidi youths seen placing coins in parking meters moments before a parking inspector issues a summons.
Nir Menussi writes that he sees this occur daily, adding that just a day ago he saw another case on Suan Street in Yerushalayim. He explains he sees a vehicle’s parking meter that is just about to go red, and just a few feet away the parking inspector. The chareidi youth who passes assesses the situation and throws a coin into the parking meter.
“I call the young chareidi but he runs to the others cars, placing coins in them as well”.
Adding to his amazement was the parking inspector, described a husky male with a shaven head, who calls the youth over to assist him, telling him “not this meter, he still has time. Put money in the other parking meter”.
The two walk together and the inspector instructs the youth to place coins in the parking meters of expired meters, avoiding a summons.
Menussi adds “I cannot control myself so I go over to the two and tell them ‘you made my day’. You are both simply tzaddikim. There should be more like you in Yisrael!”
The parking meter inspector responds “I am not a tzaddik, he his! [pointing to the youth]. I am just assisting him”.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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12 Responses
Nice!
FYI this happens in NY as well (or did until recently when they took away the meters and replaced them with the ‘pay-and-display’ systems).
In BP, on various shopping avenues (13th, 18th) I’ve done it, and seen it happen.
A few months ago, I saw a heimishe looking car (T’filas haderech card hanging from the rearview mirror) and saw the meter cop a few cars away, and was fumbling for a quarter, I put it in as he walked up, and was already looking at the car. He asked me is this your car, so I said no, it’s my friends car… he was not happy, but couldn’t stop me putting the quarter in… LOL.
מי כעמך ישראל
Serious question: is this halachically allowed? Might it be geneivah from the municipality?
I hate to say this, but the inspector should be fired. Kudos to the youth, but if this is what the inspector was hired for then he would have been issued a roll of shekels, not a ticket pad.
Beautiful achdus with youths and adult.
Try this in Anti-Coke Bloomburg’s city and you come close to getting arrested on trumped up assault charges called in by the walking remnants of human debris who issue summonses
What a lovely story being melamed zechus on Am Yisrael… ken yirbu there are so many like it let’s hear more!
Hope they don’t get muni-meters anytime soon.
The month of Elul, please post more articles like this to inspire Am Yisrael before Rosh Hashanah.
Thanks
מי כעמך ישרא-ל
Fascinating and heart warming.
Sometimes the Traffic Enforcement agents (or whatever the Meter Maids are now called in whatever city) will get upset at you. This is because they might get paid from commissions or quotas, and this practice obviously prevents them from being able to issue tickets. But in most places it is NOT illegal, even if the agent will claim that it is.
Unfortunately, in New York it is no longer possible to do this in most places, because the coin meters are being replaced by muni-meters that issue a paper receipt that has to be placed on the dashboard of the vehicle.
A different chesed (less common though) that you can do is offer your unexpired receipts to the next person parking there when you pull out.
Lhavdik eleph havdolos, like we have here in New York