Today I parked illegally in what looked like a seldom used driveway with locked gate, at a TV recording studio. Although I don’t recommend that anyone park illegally ever, I had a delivery pickup at a coffee shop that had underground parking and I didn’t feel like going through the ticketing hassle, finding a spot, then taking an elevator to the correct level, etc. so I decided to park temporarily in the least riskiest spot I could find that was closest to the coffee shop.
That ended up being a rear or side driveway to this recording studio with a locked gate, which meant it probably didn’t have a high volume of traffic since it was locked and it wasn’t the main entrance to the studio. In addition, it was obvious by the location and surroundings that my car being parked there for less than two minutes while I pickup my order most likely wouldn’t cause anyone any issues, so I did.
By the time I grabbed my delivery pickup and started walking back to my car, which was a total of less than two minutes because this was a place that simply left all the mobile orders on a shelf so mobile delivery people don’t have to waste time asking an employee if their order is ready, a female security guard was rapidly walking towards my car. I ran over to her and explained that I had been there for less than 120 seconds but she immediately started yelling at me “You can’t park there! Parking there is a $400 ticket and we already took a picture of your license plate.” I was in a hurry to get my order delivered so I simply responded by telling her “Oh well, sorry! If you’re already going to send me a ticket then I guess there’s not much else to talk about right? Have a great day!” She was irritated and responded with “Yeah, oh well!”
Admittedly, I was a little worried about the ticket and just considered it to be a learning lesson not to park illegally anymore. However, a few hours later at one of my delivery pickups, I ran into a group of LA County Sheriff’s eating lunch so I decided to ask them if a private security guard company could issue parking tickets and they told me “No, they can’t. They can only call us and only we can issue a parking ticket or any ticket. The video recording or any pictures they took of your license plate do not matter. In order for you to get a ticket, they would have to call us and your car would have to be there when we arrive. So you’re good man.” He chuckled at told me not to park illegally in the future. Super cool cops!