Google map photo
Photo from Google Maps
This certainly isn't the first time this scam has been pulled off in downtown Detroit for major events.
Essentially how it works is that scammers charge to park in a vacant lot that doesn't belong to them. The scammers walk away after the event begins and tow trucks remove the cars or the city comes by and leave tickets for illegally parking.
Steve Neavling of Motor City Muckraker reports:
As many as 15 families were stranded in Detroit after the Thanksgiving Day Parade because of a parking scam and unforgiving condo residents.
Three tow trucks removed 10 to 15 cars from a parking lot at Alfred and Woodward late Thursday morning because they were parked in a private, unused lot behind a condo complex. But parade goers didn’t know they did anything wrong because a person posing as a parking attendant collected $5 to let people park in the lot.
Goch & Sons is unapologetic, Neavling writes, though some motorists pleaded to avoided being towed and didn't have the $390 to retrieve their vehicles. Some were left stranded.
Deadline Detroit reported in May of 2015 that people paid $20 to park for a Tigers' game at Winder and Beaubien in Brush Park, only to return to learn that it was a scam and the lot was not designating for legal parking. People had city-issued tickets on their cars for illegally parking.
