City workers repaint spot as handicap zone, tow car

Doug Stanglin, USA TODAY | USATODAY

Tel Aviv city authorities have acknowledged that municipal workers repainted a curbside parking spot as a handicap zone while a car was parked in the space, then had it towed away for parking illegally without a disabled driver permit, Haaretz reported Tuesday.

Fortunately for the car owner, Hila Ben Baruch, a surveillance camera captured the entire incident.

She got an apology from city hall, which canceled the equivalent of a $270 fine and $90 towing fee, when she picked up the car Monday night, the newspaper reported.

"You just see it and can't believe it," Ben Baruch wrote on her Facebook page when she posted the video, which she got from an office building across the street.

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"In a heartbeat they repainted the curb, from blue and white to gray. That's it. Simple," she wrote. "Within 5 minutes they turned me into a criminal. But who cares? The important thing is that Tel Aviv sucked some more blood."

The city plans to investigate the incident, Haaretz reported.

"This was indeed a serious error, and schlemielism that is unacceptable to the Tel Aviv-Jaffa municipality," the city said in a statement, using a Yiddish word for bungling. "We apologize for the distress and will examine our conduct for the future, so that these kinds of things won't happen again."