Never Park in a NO PARKING Zone! :-)

This is kind of a funny story I heard this morning. Since it did not happen to me, I will not name names. Thankfully, no one ended up getting in trouble. :-)

So, Joe headed to a government building in the city yesterday to work on some locks for the building. Parking was completely full, and Joe didn't know what to do, so he talked to security of the building. They told him to park out front.

Joe's response was, "But the sign says no parking."

Security guy. "That's okay... You can park there, just not random visitors. It is reserved."

Joe looks curiously at the guard, but needs to get his work done and obliges. After several hours of installing locks, Joe heads back out to his non-marked white van in the no parking zone. As he is walking up to the van, two federal labeled vehicles pull up and rush toward him demanding answers.

Joe stops dead in his tracks and looks to the federal agents for understanding, but they do not tell him anything. Instead, they demand to know why he has parked his white van in the no parking zone.

Poor Joe replies, "the head of security told me too..."

The agents do not believe Joe and press him further. They want to know who he is, what he is doing in the building, and demand answers.

Joe repeats the same thing,"the parking lot was full and the security needed the locks done right away. Call inside, they will tell you."

All this time Joe is assuming that the agents out front, who introduced themselves as federal security, are agents that work in the building. He can't understand why they are making such a big deal about it and why they don't just ask their boss since he was the one who told him to park there. But the agents tick away with more questions instead.

Finally, the agents ask Joe for some ID. To which he hands them his business card, still not realizing just how serious the situation is.

The agents eye one another as if Joe is trying to hide something, and proceed to step forward and demand his driver's license.

At this point, Joe is finally catching on that there is more going on than just some building security and hands over his license. He had just been about to crack a joke when that happened about how he really didn't have manure in the back of his van and he wasn't really going to blow the place up... Thank goodness he didn't tell the joke, because that is EXACTLY what the agents thought he was doing.

The federal agents called in Joe's information and found out that yes, he did work for a construction company, no he had no warrants for his arrest, and he was supposed to be working in the building. Then, and only then, did the agents relax. But they warned him that he was going to get a ticket for parking in front of a government building in a no parking zone.

Joe of course does not want a ticket. He was told to park there and doesn't feel it is fair that he get the ticket and have his insurance raised when security told him to do it. But Joe also realizes now that the federal agents are not working for building security, they are with NATIONAL SECURITY. And poor Joe does not want to cause anymore trouble. He accepts his fate and agrees to the ticket.

The agents then question the building security and find out that they did tell him to park there, not realizing it would be a problem since they needed the locks done asap. Finally, the agents realized Joe was not going to harm anyone and was simply doing his job, so they let him go without a ticket. But Joe leaned a serious lesson, NEVER EVER PARK IN A NO PARKING ZONE IN FRONT OF A GOVERNMENT BUILDING! :-)