A pregnant woman days away from giving birth remembers her shock after getting a parking ticket while buying a ticket at the meter.
Taylor opened up to 3AW presenter Jacqui Felgate about the bizarre incident that occurred on Swan St in Richmond, Melbourne’s inner city.
He was late for a hair salon appointment and parked right in front of the salon at 12:01 p.m.
Taylor climbed into the machine to get the code to enter the PayStay parking app.
He was entering the code as he entered the room.
He couldn’t believe his eyes when he came out two minutes later and found a parking ticket in his car window.
The mother-to-be described the park ranger’s actions as “horrible” and opportunistic behavior (file image)
Angered by Taylor’s story, Felgate asked her if she thought the parking inspector would have noticed if Taylor was pregnant.
“I’m nine months pregnant, these days it’s quite a pain to get out of the car,” she said.
Felgate added: “There is also supposed to be a five-minute window for this matter.”
Taylor was shocked to be reprimanded and described the ranger’s actions as “horrible” and opportunistic behavior.
“It takes them a couple of minutes to enter all the data into the machine,” he said.
He is hoping to get the ticket overturned since he took photos of the meter at the time he got the code.
“I’m fortunate to have a lot of evidence, so I’m confident I’ll walk away free,” Taylor said.
“It’s more that he must have seen me get out of the car, walk up to the machine, write down the number and then go into the hair salon. He must have seen me.
Felgate described the incident as a prank.
“When it’s a cost of living crisis, you’re about to have a baby, you just want to do your hair before you give birth and you’re basically buying the ticket and they don’t even give you time to put it on.” on the machine,” she said.
Yarra City Councilor Stephen Jolly has since notified council of Taylor’s “outrageous” fine and requested a review of the matter.
He added that the case is not isolated.
“I’m getting a lot more calls from Yarra City residents who are receiving a more ruthless attitude from parking inspectors,” Cr Jolly told Felgate.
“I think they are under a lot more pressure to make more money. It’s like the councils are almost at war with the drivers.
“I’ve been on the council for 20 years, but I’ve never called people so many times about issues similar to this.”
Felgate posted Taylor’s story on her Instagram account and the responses were brutal.
“Parking inspectors are a special breed of unfriendly humans,” one user wrote.
“A parking inspector tried to do this to me once and then said he was going to give me a ticket for being aggressive. He passed a lawyer, scolded him and asked him to apologize,” wrote another.
Taylor is confident his parking ticket will be overturned (file image)