Parking Meter Robin Hoods Getting Government Attention


Let’s be honest, the government hates when you take money away from them. It doesn’t matter how you do it, they simply don’t want to lose a dime. Yet a group of Robin Hoods seem to be doing just that in Keene, New Hampshire. It seems that a group of people are robbing from the rich and giving to the poor by going by a parking meter that is expired or about to be expired and filling it so that the person does not get a ticket.

This is something we’ve heard of before. Meter maids and people similar seem to do this out of kindness often. So what has the city government and even a local pastor calling for this to stop? It seems that not only do these Robin Hoods like to help the people out, but they also harass police officers as they walk down the street attempting to give tickets to people with expired meters.

We’ve all been there when a meter expires and we have to go down to the city office and pay a fine that we probably can’t afford. This is why parking decks are awesome!

Some feel that these Robin Hood types are good people who are simply using free speech to say what they want to police officers, meanwhile others think it is harassment to basically get all in the grill of the officers doing their job.

Local Keene Pastor, David Berman says the so called do-gooders are in reality nothing but bullies by harassing parking enforcement agents by chasing them around town, videotaping and taunting them.

The Robin Hoods seem to film the officers and kind of stalk them during the day, saying things like, “you’re not writing any tickets today”, among other things. While yes, it is not wrong to keep a certain distance and say things,you can only go so far. If the people were simply filling meters, there may not be an issue.

Keene native Gary Lamoureux runs the city’s parking enforcement, he said regarding the issue:

“We have no problem with videotaping. They can videotape all they wish. What we do have a problem with is getting in the way of doing their jobs or intimidating, harassing, or bullying our employees.”

It seemed that the government got tired of it. So in they decided to appeal the video taping via lawsuit at least, if they could not stop the meter filling. Although, there is a rumored attempt or two to stop that as well. The city lost their battle sad to say, which means that the video taping will continue. They possibly can manage to get proof of harassment eventually and by then a video taping issue could come up.

You’d think that these people would just be happy doing good for people by putting money in the parking meter. Did Robin Hood want to be known as the person who did good? Not really, it just happened. He robbed from the rich to give to the poor and didn’t want credit, it was just given to him. So it seems that the act is far greater than the reward of not being known and just putting change in the meter.

These Robin Hoods have are doing a great thing by filling meters, but if they continue to screw up by taping officers for doing their job and then harassing them for it, it’s not worth the hassle of allowing them to put a quarter in the machine.

Share this article: Parking Meter Robin Hoods Getting Government Attention
More from Inquisitr