Cops and Courts

In the three months that I covered the criminal trial of W.R. Grace & Co., I frequently parked outside the Russell Smith federal courthouse in Missoula, averaging about two parking tickets a day.

Most mornings I’d pump a buck in quarters into the meter and make a frenzied dash to the courthouse to watch the trial, but then I’d forget to re-feed the meter over the lunch break. Some days, I might not feed the meter at all, figuring that a $2 ticket was better than squandering all of my quarters in one place and getting punished regardless, since the meter maids circumnavigate the city center in search of expired tickers.

In the final weeks of trial, the heap of yellow tickets that had amassed on my passenger seat had become a symbol of my unflagging trial coverage, and I wasn’t about to start paying them after I’d come so far. Bad idea.

As soon as the trial wrapped up, I once again began spending most of my time  at the ultra-busy C0unty courthouse, where an assembly line of felons appear before four judges on a near-daily basis. I’d park my short on Ryman Street instead of Pattee, but in a matter of days I was greeted by a not-so amusing laurel for my distinguished slacker-tude – a bright orange boot immobilizing my Subaru.

There’s all kinds of measures I could have taken to avoid the daily tickets, like parking my whip in the downtown garage and walking to the federal courthouse. Or parking at the Missoulian and walking across the bridge. But I’m not that organized.

It cost me $160 to cover the parking violations and have the boot removed. But the really sad and pathetic thing is this was the fourth time I’ve been booted since I started working at the Missoulian in 2005, making regular downtown beat checks and earning plenty of yellow-enveloped parking violations.

I’m saying it right now, for the record, that was the last boot my poor station wagon is going to endure. I won’t swear off parking tickets yet, but I’m goning to be dang punctual about paying them on time.

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