Matt Salzwedel was on a date when he parked his new car in a downtown Minneapolis parking lot. Nikki Daly was running an errand. Jeff Hulme was meeting friends at a nearby bar.
They all parked in the same lot at the corner of Washington and 1st avenues. And they all insist they put $8 cash in an envelope and dropped it into the pay box. But when they returned, their cars had been towed and they had no way of proving that they'd paid.
The lot's owner, John Rimarcik, is skeptical. In the decades he's been a downtown property owner, he said he's heard every excuse for why drivers shouldn't have been towed, including accusations that his employees have pocketed the cash payments. About twice a year, he estimated, cars are mistakenly towed. But he vehemently denies that anyone is improperly taking his customers' money.
"They just think they won't get caught," Rimarcik said of the drivers.
More than a dozen drivers who contacted Whistleblower said parking lots should be required to provide receipts because the current paybox system is unfair to consumers.
"The thing about those lots is there's no proof that I paid or didn't pay," said Daly, a kindergarten teacher from St. Louis Park. "There's no reason that you should leave the money in the box and hope for the best."
Minneapolis parking regulators said they've heard similar complaints over the years and have even sat outside several lots to observe employees, but they didn't see anything suspicious. A more common sight was people who didn't pay.
"I think these lots are on the up-and-up," said Rich Tuffs, the city's parking lot inspector. Tuffs acknowledged that there's not much customers can do to prove they paid.
