Local

Drivers booted after paying fake parking attendant

ATLANTA,None — Drivers say they paid for parking in a downtown Atlanta lot, but got booted anyway.

Channel 2 Action News reporter Craig Lucie looked into what went wrong, and now at least two parking companies are investigating the problem.

Evan Dessasau said he felt like he did the right thing by paying for parking, but got punished anyway.

"We felt like we had been had," said Dessasau.

Dessasau said he pulled into a lot off Baker Street and a man approached him for payment.

"He has a big piece of blue chalk and he marks the tire with the blue chalk," explained Dessasau.

Dessasau paid him $5 and the attendant told him the chalk was on his tire, so he won't get a boot.

But a few hours later, that wasn't the case.

"I had a boot on my car, and I noticed there were a lot of boots on cars in the parking lot," said Dessasau.

One of the other cars belonged to his sister, who Lucie spoke with on the phone after she called the police. She said the man who took their money was posing as an attendant.

"Police basically said, 'This happens all the time?'" asked Lucie.

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"Yes. It happens all the time," Yvette Echols said.

Lucie called Advanced Booting Services and they told him the same thing, adding that there is a homelessness problem in downtown Atlanta.

But Lucie made them aware of a big problem on their sign where customers pay.

It should say "No Attendant on Duty," but someone has blacked out the word "No."

Advanced Booting Services said they will talk to Standard Parking about replacing the sign.

The booting company is now asking for their customer's receipts if a fake attendant approached them. They didn't say they would refund their customers, but said they would look into it.