Car plug in tickets spark outrage in Transcona neighborhood

WINNIPEG- Katie Green can’t believe she was ticketed for something she says she has been doing the exact same way since 2011: plugging in her car.

The Transcona resident has lived on Cedar Grove for three years. Every winter she has been keeping her engine block warm by dragging a cord through her basement window and plugging it into her car.

That cord doesn’t cross a sidewalk, or a street, just her front lawn.

But the Winnipeg Parking Authority gave her a ticket, at 5:20 am Sunday morning,

“When it spans the sidewalk I can understand the risk” says the Transcona resident. “But this is outrageous.”

Green’s home does not have a driveway, and the space in the single car garage  is already taken by her boyfriend’s car.

The City of Winnipeg says the electrical cord ticket is a ‘safety issue’, but couldn’t provide anyone to go on camera to explain further.  It did provide a copy of the bylaw which states:

•  No person other than a Utility shall place or leave on or across any part of a City street, an unattended wire, cord or cable, that is capable of transmitting electrical energy from public or private property to or across a City street.
• The bylaw is in place for safety reasons as cords may present a tripping hazard to pedestrians or become caught/pulled during plowing operations – both on the sidewalk and on the street.  Where cords are left, they can impede plowing operations.

Green wasn’t the only person ticketed early Sunday morning.

Another resident says he’s been on the phone with 311 all day, arguing his case.

“The first night I plug in my vehicle on the street, they ticketed my car in at 5:10 am, ” said Daryl Ellis.  “I think I am being targeted.”

Ellis used to park his truck on his front lawn but was warned by a by-law officer last year that too was against the law.  So he moved the truck to the street.  He says the cord never touches city pavement.