Parked on the street in a marked bay at 19:00 this evening, in Lörrach. Came back from a very nice meal to find an orange piece of paper (about A6 size) under my windscreen wiper and disintegrating in the rain.
Having rescued it, I saw it looks kind of officialish, having the Stadt Lörrach logo on it. The wording is (with my translation)
Hinweis auf eine Verkehrsordungswidrigkeit (Notice of traffic administration violation)
Datum... (date of the alleged offence)
Kennzeichen... (number plate)
Ihnen wird eine verkehrsordnungswidrigkeit zur Last gelegt. You are accused of a traffic administrative offense.
It then goes on to say that you'll be contacted in the next few days in writing with a form(? the German is Anhörbogen ), and not to bother them within 3 days as it takes time to process things.
Anyone seen one of these things before? It seems strange that there's no notification of what was wrong, there's no time of the offence, no signature, and it wasn't in a nice protective plastic wallet. I checked all around and could find no reason at all why I shouldn't be parking there. Even the ticket machine across the road said parking was free from 19:00 to 07:00.
We paid for a parking space near Lorrach Post Office, and placed the ticket receipt on the drivers side. We returned and found a parking ticket was placed on the passenger's side under the wiper. We visited the city office, who telephoned the stupid traffic warden, whose handy was turned off! They told us to ignore the summons. A summons was issued and after e-mails, it was cancelled.
The city parking ticket office is on the 2nd floor, in the tall building near the post office, near the Hauptbahnhof.
Maybe you should photograph where you parked, for future arguments.. Maybe it was a practical joker?
I just got this same type of ticket yesterday in Konstantz after just 10 minutes parked at a meter.
The frustrating thing is that the meter was clearly marked as operating on Werk Tages -- doesn't that mean Monday to Friday? I would have paid the meter if it was in operation.
NotAllThere: Did you get the letter from them yet? I'm curious how much the fine is, if they gave more details and if there is any way to appeal.
We got the fine today. €15 and a swiss bank account to pay into, but we have to use the day of the offence's exchange rate!
The letter with the fine was much clearer. Apparently that street restricts parking between 19:00 to 07:00 to residents. That's a restriction I've never encountered anywhere before!
We did have fluent German speakers in the car with us, but even they didn't interpret that street signs to read that!
But - the bill is legal, it's from Lörrach, and I was parked there, so I'll pay the fine. And remember it next time we get the MWST back from our family shopping.