An elderly couple who have lived in Baltimore for more than 50 years never worried about parking their car in front of their Brooklyn house ? until now.
Anita and Henry Cheswick, both 83 and disabled, got a 48-hour notice sticker from the city: Move your car or be towed.
“We were very upset. This has never happened before,” Anita Cheswick said.
Even though the two World War II veterans have lived in same row house for 53 years, the city?s abandoned vehicle citation forced the couple to move their car down the block to avoid a costly tow.
“The neighbors are just stunned,” Henry Cheswick said. “I don?t know what they can do to justify the idea.”
Anita Cheswick, who has lived in her Brooklyn row house for more than half a century, said there is plenty of parking in her neighborhood.
“We?re mystified as to who called about our car. There is lots of parking up and down the block,” she said.
Any car parked more than 48 hours in the same space on a city street is subject to towing. Cheswick said that she is not against the abandoned vehicle law per se, but that her case shows the statute has the potential to be misapplied.
“What if we had gone on a cruise and we weren?t able to move the car, it would have been towed?” she said.
Her son, Michael Cheswick, called city government to complain and was told the car should be moved around the block, advice that he says is absurd. “These are elderly people who may move the car once a week to go to the grocery store. It?s a real hardship for them,” he said.
Officials from the Department of Transportation said the city?s law is not as draconian as it appears.
“The whole purpose of the law is not to harass people about their cars; it?s to keep abandoned vehicles off the street,” said Transportation spokeswoman Adrian Barnes.
Barnes said the city checks the tags of cars before they are towed.
“If we go back and run their tags and they?re good, we don?t bother them for seven to nine days,” she said.
And while City Council Member Keiffer Jackson Mitchell, D-11th District, recently introduced a bill that would change the law, it doesn?t ease Anita Cheswick?s anxiety. “We don?t know what?s going on,” she said.
