Ticket Away

There is only one thing worse than having a car towed away for parking violations: getting the automobile back after it has been taken by police. The process can consume an entire day and involve almost as much hassle and humbling as being drummed out of the regiment. Endless hours must be spent in lines leading to sometimes abusive traffic-court clerks who treat parking offenders as if they were homicide suspects. Policemen and judges often heap scorn on a miscreant. Tow-truck operators can be just as surly.

Now entrepreneurs in Washington, D.C., and Boston are prepared to absorb these slings and arrows for scofflaws. For annual charges, including membership fees, representatives of Washington’s Humiliation Elimination and Boston’s Ticket Away will pay fines and drive owners to their cars, charging the entire cost to the customer’s credit card. In Washington, parking offenders can sip champagne in a chauffeured limousine as they are taken to their lost vehicles at the D.C. department of transportation’s impoundment lot. Said a gratified user of the Boston service: “Not only did it save me a day’s work, it probably saved my job.”