Security cameras show Tel Aviv municipality workers painting handicapped markings around parked vehicle and then towing it.
By BEN HARTMANCar towed from handicapped space 370(photo credit: Screenshot)
The Tel Aviv Municipality found itself in hot water on Tuesday, after a Facebook post by a woman whose car was towed after city workers painted a handicapped space around the vehicle went viral, becoming a mini-scandal and garnering coverage across Israeli media outlets.Security camera footage from a store above the parking spot on Yehuda Halevi Street shows the car parked at a legal blue parking spot, before city workers arrive and paint a handicapped spot around the car, which is towed shortly thereafter.The video was obtained by the owner of the car, Hila Ben-Baruch, from the surveillance camera of the store above the parking spot.She complained to the Tel Aviv Municipality with the video in hand and the fine against her was rescinded.Ben-Baruch titled her Facebook post, “To see and not believe,” explaining that she had parked legally in a blueand- white-marked parking space on Sunday with the proper area registration in an area she had parked in regularly for the last year and a half.When she left for work Sunday night, the car was no longer there, she added.“The big surprise that awaited me broke all the records and I couldn’t believe my eyes – my car was not in the space I parked it in and in its place was a parking space for the disabled.”Ben-Baruch added that in addition to being towed, at a cost of NIS 350, she was also fined NIS 1,000 for parking in a handicapped spot, “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”In response to the incident, the municipality stated, “This was a severe mistake and a case of incompetence that the city of Tel Aviv does not accept – We apologize for the distress caused by the incident and we are examining the case so that such incidents do not happen again in the future.
“The contractor who arrived at the scene marked it as a handicapped spot, but, contrary to procedure did not notify the city inspection department.”The city also stipulated that three days before the incident a sign was posted at the site stating that from then on it had become a handicapped parking spot.“When the resident arrived at the city’s parking department yesterday her fine was immediately canceled and she was not required to pay the towing fee,” the municipality said.Mayor Ron Huldai also apologized to the driver on his Facebook page and said that he would make sure that a similar mistake would not occur again.Jerusalem Post staff contributed to this report.
