I am very disheartened that I was scammed by Coastal Parking Management this past weekend. I parked at one of the company's lots on the corner of King and Morris Street. I inserted $6.00 into the parking box at 7:30 p.m. before enjoying a wonderful evening in celebration of my friend's birthday at Chai's. To my surpprise, when I returned to the car around 10:00 p.m., there was a bogus invoice on the car and a boot. My car was the only car booted, and it was the only new and expensive car. The notice instructed me to call a phone number and I reached a young man who told me that he'd be there in 20 minutes and would tell me what the problem was. I was expecting that maybe I was not parked in the right spot, but definitely never thought that it would have to do with payment as I took care of that before leaving the lot. To my surpirise, someone pulls up in an SUV (not a tow truck). The young man was very uneasy as I read him like a newspaper. He walked to the box, opened it, and had no other explananation besides ""my supervisor said that he dropped the box at 9 and there was no money in there."" My money was still hanging from the slot as I told him it would be. He said that I must have just put it in there which he knew was a lie. I called the police who could not do anything for me because it is a civil issue. After abouth 20 minutes, the supervisor, an older guy with a ""nasty"" attitude pulls up in a white pickup truck. He was very rude, and did not want me to speak with him as he seemed very upset to learn that I had called the police. He walked to the box and as I assumed that he would try to alter the paperwork and remove the money so I jumped from my car and followed him. He was very disgruntled that I was taking pictures of him and would not leave. I paid the money with my credit card as I figure these guys do this every weekend for every cash and split the money. I refuse to let them gain any capital from my hard earned money!!! I would advise anyone who parks in these lots to take photos of yourself inserting the money snapping something indicative of where you are so that you will have a time /date stamp for your protection, or simply DO NOT park in these types of lots.
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