It was an ordinary day. Just finished reading a story in my morning newspaper about a person who had received a parking ticket in the nearby town of Lititz, Pennsylvania. I'm sure it has happened many times in the past, but this particular person decided to pay his, or perhaps her, parking fee in a rather unusual way. The Lititz Borough Police Department Facebook page posted a video of the mailed ticket with 13 stamps on the envelope and dimes spilling out the side of the envelope. They paid their $15.00 parking fee in dimes...150 of them. The package weighed 378.78 grams which cost the delinquent parker an additional $7.80 to mail. If the culprit had mailed a check it would have cost 60 cents to mail the envelope with the check in it. Sgt. Stephen Detz, a 20 year veteran of the police department wrote that it took less than two minutes to count the coins. He jokingly thanked the sender for the coins amid a change shortage and for making sure their supply of dimes was "bounteous." He continued with..."the fact that you, Mr. Parking Ticket Receiver, took time to think of us while paying your parking ticket speaks volumes to your character as a human. We can imagine that paying a parking ticket is an extremely stressful event, so again thank you for thinking of us." Sgt. Detz's post has gotten national attention. In fact, a San Francisco resident reached out and asked if Lititz had their parking tickets on sale. Inside Edition even made a short YouTube video about the ticket. The comment section of the video is rife with coin puns and users having a laugh with the post. One reader responded with..."Rookie, everyone knows you pay in person with pennies....geez" while another wrote "Do the crime, pay the dime." I can't imagine how many people must do the same thing when mailing a parking ticket. And, I'm sure the police members get a kick out of most of the letters. And, I'm also sure that a few people sending in their parking fee respond with a nasty comment. Now that would make me smile if I were a policeman. I just can't imagine what it must be like to be a policeman and have to put up with all the comments and responses they receive for just about everything that happens on a daily basis. We owe all police personnel a big "Thank You" for all they do to keep us safe. I taught school for over 35 years and I thought I had it bad at times, but then I think about being a policeman and realize my job was a piece of cake in comparison. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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