COP Shift on Friday - Beach Parking Receipt

We were approached by a visitor to the beach that had trouble interpreting what this receipt meant and whether it was valid. He had put $6 in the "kiosk" and this is what he got in return. I took a picture of it and e-mailed to Joel Morganstern who responded with this information.

Hello Wes,

I checked with the officer at the beach. What this ticket is, several times a day the machine goes through a “Self Test” During this short period there is a red light that goes on and the screen says ‘Do not deposit any money until red light is off”. People don’t either read it or pay any attention to it. They deposit the money and hit “print” and this is what comes out.

Now, if they approach an officer who happens to be there, or just put it on the dash as if it was a regular receipt, the officer can look at it. He sees that there was $6.00 deposited, because it still shows that, and he sees the time as 11:38 am because it still shows that, and he just does the math in his head and knows when that ticket will expire.

Hope that clears if for you because I didn’t know about it either until you sent it to me.

Thanks for patrolling.

Joel

If this happens to you, treat it like the usual receipt and, to prevent it from happening entirely, wait for the machine to finish its recalibration.