- He tried the parking trick on a busy street in central Sheffield.
A man claims he was able to park for free in a busy city centre thanks to a “genius” parking hack.
In a viral video, the driver showed himself and a friend trying out the trick that would apparently allow them to park for free in Sheffield.
In the clip, filmed a year ago, the men find a way to get a parking ticket without paying a cent.
A man presses the red button on a ticket vending machine, before repeatedly pressing the green button until a message appears saying: “Ticket printing in process.”
A man claims he was able to park for free in a busy city centre thanks to a “genius” parking hack (File image)
After a Yorkshire Live journalist decided to put the trick to the test, he expressed concern about the practice and revealed that it might not be such a cool find after all.
The machine then prints a ticket that says “fare paid,” but without any payment being made.
The start time of that particular ticket was listed as 7:20 pm and its expiration time was 8:20 am the following morning.
People were quick to hail the individual as a “genius” in response, but an updated attempt at performing the trick has shown that it could catch anyone looking to score a free parking ticket.
After Yorkshire Live Journalists decided to put the trick to the test and raised concerns about the practice, revealing that it might not be such a cool find after all.
They revealed that, like in the original video, they pressed the red button once before subsequently pressing the green button as many times as possible.
They were surprised to find that, true to the original clip, the machine printed the ticket without requiring any payment form to be submitted.
However, after waiting more than 12 hours for free parking, they were shocked to discover they had only been given 20 minutes.
The terms and conditions of the parking machine clearly state that anyone who purchases a ticket to leave their vehicle in an allocated space is entitled to 20 minutes of free parking per day.
When they put the experiment to the test, they were stunned to discover that they had only been given 20 minutes of free parking instead of 12 hours (Archive image)
This confirmed speculation on social media in response to the clip, with Instagram users pointing out that the long time period indicated on their ticket was because it could have been obtained outside of the bay’s loading hours.
This means that they could have parked there for free anyway.
Responding to the clip’s post, users explained how this process could have occurred, writing:
‘Most likely in an 8am to 6:30pm zone, you’ll get 20 free minutes just by pressing the green button, so they roll over to the next day.’
‘After billable time, the free 20 minutes roll over to the next day.’
‘Most likely it was after the paid parking ended and they give you 20 free minutes starting at 8am.’
