‘I don’t make the rules, I just follow them': College students share clever methods to get out of paying unjustified parking tickets

Author image for Bar Mor Hazut
Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Sep 29, 2024 9:00 AM EDT

Being a college student already puts you at a difficult starting point when it comes to your financial state. There is simply so much one has to pay for in college, and physically being in school also means you can't really work to pay for everything college demands.

One of the most infuriating things colleges usually take money for is parking. Apparently, the tuition is not enough to secure a place to park on campus, so colleges resort to asking even more money for parking passes or permits.

That is where this clever discussion comes into the picture. Initially, this started as a Reddit story from the subreddit 'Malicious Compliance', which tells the tale of how one college student followed the rules and maliciously got out of a parking ticket. Then, people in the comments also share some clever ways they got away with parking on campus without having to pay ridiculous amounts of money for parking passes or tickets.

Scroll down to read these helpful stories. After you are done, click here for a story of a band member who put the entitled lead singer in his place.

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  • 01
    PARKING VIOLATION Fine: No:1 Date "I parked in a lot the tow truck couldn't fit into"
    via pixelshot
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    University parking rules; I don't make them, I just follow them
    via This_Composer1230
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    Back in the mid 90s when I attended college parking permits were required for all cars to park at my school. The stated requirement was that the permit had to be attached
    via This_Composer1230
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    to the windshield with its own backing (the permit had an adhesive backing to use when affixing to the windshield). Taping the permit to the windshield was explicitly not allowed.
    via This_Composer1230
  • 05
    When I got my permit I took some clear plastic wrap and wrapped it around the middle of the permit, leaving just a sliver of the permit's sticky backing at the top and bottom
    via This_Composer1230
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    of the permit. I then attached the permit to the windshield of my car. Later I got a parking ticket from my university for taping my parking permit to the windshield of my windshield. Of course, I appealed the
    via This_Composer1230
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    ticket. When I went to the window to explain how I creatively attached the permit, the clerk said "that's not what we meant." I replied, "I don't care about what you meant. I care
    via This_Composer1230
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    about what was written. The permit is attached to the windshield with it's own backing." Surprisingly, the ticket was dropped and I never had another issue.
    via This_Composer1230
  • 09
    SirSimon 20h ago • When I was in college a parking pass was $450 per year. Parking tickets were $15. I got the hang of which parking lots to park in for which classes and ended the year with $300 in parking tickets. Was it worth all the effort to save $150? Yes.
    via SirSimon
  • 10
    KindK 1267 • 17h ago • A commuter pass was $300. Off campus there was a shuttered factory which has a massive parking lot. I parked there for 3 years for free and it was a closer walk to classes than the on campus parking. The campus eventually bought the parking lot and make buy a permit for it now haha.
    via KindK**267
  • 11
    BlueJohn2113 • 19h ago • I did something similar. Parking pass was like $120 for a semester. I spent a few days monitoring the lot I would need to park in and noted whenever the ticketing car would come by. To my delight they always came at around the same time, and that time happen to be
    via BlueJohn2113
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    when I didnt have class. So I parked there all semester and would just go drive my car around a bit during the time they'd come by to get tickets. I only ended up with 1 $10 ticket by the end of the semester.
    via BlueJohn2113
  • 13
    EUV2023 14h ago • Locally, colleges sell passes and don't t even have enough parking! You are basically paying for the CHANCE to park.
    via EUV2023
  • 14
    embee81 19h ago • I did the same in college. I was a commuter and parked in the dorm lot the tow truck couldn't fit into.
    via embee81
  • 15
    • babiha 19h ago • You got nothing on this guy: It was 1993 and the place was Sacramento City College faculty parking lot. It was evening and I was waiting in my car for someone when a young kid drives into a parking space. Gets out, backpack in tow, and looks around.
    via babiha
  • 16
    He grabs the parking ticket from under a wiper from an adjacent car and plops it on his windshield. Job done and he strolls past. Pure professional.
    via babiha
  • 17
    . guder 16h ago • I used to put my permit on a clear cassette case and displayed on my dash and then toss it in my glove box when not in use. They used to be scraped off cars, but locked inside a car and clearly visible, it was kept
    via guder
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    safe. Never had a problem and the one time they tried admonishing I pointed at their instructions for them to be just "inside the windshield and clearly visible."
    via guder
  • 19
    GibbousMoonCakes • 14h ago • I used to keep my daily permits and "reuse" them the semesters I needed to show up during the day. 3's became 8's, 7's became 9's, etc. I think I only got 2 tickets ever. I used the first ticket as a decoy for a while too until I lost it. Good times
    via GibbousMoonCakes
  • 20
    sb4ssman ⚫13h ago • I've got a fun one: a pal worked in the department that handled issued tickets. When issuing tickets the security just wrote a ticket and someone else did a lookup based on some information you filled out to get the pass. There was no double-
    via sb4ssman
  • 21
    check that you wrote down the correct information to get the pass. With fake information I could park with impunity because my pass was wholly disconnected from my student ID. They could issue whatever ticket they wanted to that permit, and then it would get lost to the ether.
    via sb4ssman
  • 22
    Darthdemented 8h ago • I once got a parking ticket to a college I didn't even go to. Didn't pay it, got the whole letter threatening to encumber my record, didn't care because I didn't go there ②
    via Darthdemented

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parking lot students malicious compliance parking ticket malicious-compliance-reddit clever reddit story tickets Reddit funny money college college student parking
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