The Associated Press reports that Andrea Cammelleri received a parking citation for leaving her pickup truck parked in an area for longer than 24 hours.
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Apparently, the ordinance’s error was the absence of a comma, which would separate motor vehicle and camper as two different objects.
Judge Robert A. Hendrickson of the Middletown court ultimately decided in favor of the punctuation-conscious appellant, as outlined in his decision (in which he shamelessly drops knowledge on The Village of West Jefferson ). It happened in the small town of Middletown, Ohio, where an ordinance lists certain vehicles that can’t be parked on the street for extended periods of time.
As the comma was missing between “vehicle” and “camper”, Ms Cammelleri was able to argue that her pick-up truck did not meet the description and so she had contravened no laws.
After reading the ordinance, Cammelleri immediately found a loophole. Police say 35-year-old NYC resident John Williams Jr. took a 300-mile cab ride across Pennsylvania with his kids to surprise his fiancee.
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“I was told, “Don’t fight City Hall””, Cammelleri said.
