A Vancouver man is calling foul after he was issued a $2,900 ticket for allegedly damaging the gate arm of a mall parkade — something he insists he didn’t do.
Philipp Postrehovsky was taking his children to a weekly gymnastics class on March 11 and pulling into the Precise ParkLink lot at City Square Mall when he said the gate arm refused to lift for the cars trying to enter.
He said he ended up stuck between a car in front of him and several cars trying to enter behind him. That’s when he pushed an assistance button, no one answered and, with a little one in need of the bathroom, he decided to try to lift the arm.
“It didn’t go up. I got back into my car, eventually security came, had the gate opened up and we all got through,” Postrehovsky told Global News on Thursday.
“I thought that was the end of it and apparently it wasn’t, because about a week later, I got a ticket for almost $3,000 alleging that I had broken the gate and they had to replace the whole arm.”
Postrehovsky said the gate arm did not appear to be broken when security raised it and all the cars were able to access the parkade.
The ticket, issued on March 13, accuses him of “vandalising/damaging” the gate arm and charges him $2,904.84 for its repair.
The ticket, which includes a space for Postrehovsky to fill out his credit card information and authorize a payment, also states that Precise ParkLink Inc. will consider having his vehicle towed from its lots, fitted with a booted, or banned from certain premises if he does not comply.
In a written statement to Global News, Precise ParkLink said it had photos and video of an individual “damaging the equipment,” but did not share it for privacy reasons.
“We have evaluated the incident internally and have taken the appropriate steps to ensure this matter is resolved,” wrote spokesperson Maria Fiorini. “We have no further comment.”
Postrehovsky said both the ticket and the time given to pay it are “not fair” and “unreasonable.”
“It just blew me away because I’ve never vandalized anything in my life and I was simply trying to get out of this situation, which Precise Parking put me into, and really trapped all of us down there, and (they) sent me this bill for $3,000,” he said.
“I think it is the responsibility of the parking company to make sure their equipment’s working.”
He said he’s happy to keep paying to park his vehicle, but hopes the company does the “right thing” and cancels the ticket.
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