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Honey, I TOLD You Not To Park There

By John Mesirow

Having been ticketed for almost every imaginable violation of the traffic code (parking too close to an intersection, parking too close to an alley, parking too far from the curb, parking at a broken meter [under prior law], along with all the typical violations), the Juice no longer parks illegally. Back in the day, though, say, when he was 28, like Englishman Michael Raphel, he would park just about anywhere.

It would not be a stretch to assume that Mr. Raphel's carefree parking days are behind him too. Why? Because the police blew up his illegally parked car! As reported by The Telegraph:

Michael Raphel, 28, left his £18,000 red Honda Civic Type R on double yellow lines less than a quarter of a mile from Number 10.

But, fearing a potential terrorist attack, the Metropolitan Police carried out two controlled explosions after CCTV footage showed him running from the parked vehicle.

The force of the blast blew the doors off and smashed the windows, leaving the car wrecked.

£18,000! ($30,000 US!) Alright, pal, what were you really doing there?

... visiting London to celebrate a friend's birthday ...

How did Mr. Raphel react?

''We have laughed about it a bit now but I'm bit gutted to be honest.

''I know in this day and age they have to be suspicious but I didn't feel this was warranted.

''I wasn't treated badly, but they could've been a bit more tactful.

''The car was registered to me, I'm sure there are ways they could have contacted me if they had really tried to.''

Agreed. Here's the source.

Full post as published by Legal Juice on November 27, 2009 (boomark / email).