Forging a Permit

Ah, we come to one of my favorite topics. This is what happens when someones decides to go around (or cheat) the system.
Does it work?
Not really.

A customer can buy either a year-round, sticker-based permit or a temporary, paper-based permit.I know I mentioned this before, but I'd like to give the unfamiliar blog-reader a little foundation for the topic.


Examples of sticker-based permits which are used illegally:

A random student will approach a car displaying a sticker permit. Using a digital camera, they will take a photograph of the permit. The picture will be printed, cut out, and pasted onto their car.

Why this doesn't work:
The sticker permit has a certain shine to it. The paper one doesn't.
The photograph will capture any shadows caused by the light, and we will catch it.

A student made a perfect reproduction of their parent's permit by using a scanner and printing it on special paper. The officers would have never caught this, except they noticed that this student (with their staff permit) always parked in a student lot.


Examples of paper-based permits used illegally:

Now, this is more common. When a paper-based permit is issued from our office, we write the date that the permit is valid for (or till) with a black marker. Students are fond of fudging the numbers around a little. Make the six an eight. Make the one a seven or a nine. Draw in real think lines to make it blend in. Now, this, this will always make us suspicious. But it's real easy and can be accomplished with just a simple marker stroke. Not pretty and quite obvious.

The officers are pretty efficient at finding a permit that just doesn't match up. Or else they could radio the office (yes, radio, sounds very official doesn't it?) and double check the validity of a permit.

The officers will photograph the fake permit and use it as evidence to back up the ticket. And the ticket, gee, the ticket is well over a hundred dollars.

Instead of taking the hard way around, won't it be easier to buy a permit for the day? We only charge you a couple of bucks for it. And, just to save two dollars, you end up saddled with a hundred dollar fine. It's pointless.


I made this entry for a reason. Today, I just found the photograph of a permit that had been illegally altered. The person hadn't even bothered to cover it up. They simply crossed off the old numbers and wrote in new ones. They even changed the year (which is stamped on the permit with read ink) by altering it with the black marker. Red on black or black on red...kind of stands out, doesn't it?
The permit was screaming. And it was screaming, "Ticket me! Ticket me!" Yes, we did.
The permit belonged to an employee.
The employee's boss called the office to see if anything could be done regarding the ticket. Or if the ticket could be gently nudged out of the way since it was such a heavy fine! The employee was only trying to save paper by altering the permit. See, if the old permit is changed, then you guys won't need to make out a new one. You'll save a permit, you'll save paper, and we'll all save a tree.
Aw. That's such a heart-warming thought. In fact, let's all hold hands and dance around a camp fire.
...but I find this a tad untruthful. I mean, don't you really mean save money?
And either way, their actions did make some poor tree suffer. We printed the citation on a piece of paper, and we used an envelope (also made of paper) to safe-guard this citation. Then, we had to take a picture of the parking violation and print that out. In the process, I think we ended up killing more trees, not saving them.
So, if anyone else decides to forge a permit in the future, please show some more creativity. We appreciate it if you take some time to make it look like you made an effort. This last one was a complete insult.