Get a Parking Ticket, Help the Kids

The Transportation Department and Mayor Tom Menino want you to know that, if you get a parking ticket, you can pay for your ticket if you donate a toy "of equal or greater value than the fine on the ticket." As Amy Derjue at Boston Daily points out, "some lame toy from Family Dollar" will not do.

If you have a parking ticket that you've been putting off paying, the offer doesn't apply to you. Only those who get tickets between today, December 4, and Thursday, December 6, can get out of it with a toy.

The slice of people who can substitute toys for a check to the city grows narrower when you see how many violations are excluded, and that includes double parking. The full list of "excluded violations" is "HP Ramp, HP-DV Parking Only, Fire Hydrant, Crosswalk, Double Parking, Fire Lane Less than 20 Feet From An Intersection and No Stopping/Standing."

Those, uh, lucky enough to get a ticket before Thursday need to bring their toys and a receipt to City Hall December 10 through December 14 between 9:00 am and 4:00 pm.

Image of Scrooged DVD cover from Amazon.