Allow me to make fun of my state’s capital for a minute.

I went to the Springfield, IL website for work-related reasons, where I saw a funny headline.

First vehicle “booted” as city goes after parking scofflaws.

Photo of a booted car, for those who have never seen one. Photo from dcist.com

I wondered, why is booted in quotes, and who uses the word scofflaws? I mean, they have a nice photo of Abe Lincoln on their site, but they’re still in the year 2008 right?

Springfield’s Honest Abe graphic.

So I clicked the link. To a former Chicagoan who thinks of “the boot” as a regular occurrence, the article was pretty funny. They actually published who got the first boot on their car!

The City of Springfield has applied the “boot” to the first vehicle that belongs to an individual who owes $500 or more in unpaid parking tickets. The vehicle was located in the 100 block of North Fourth Street. It is owned by Gary Corcoran, who has since come forward and paid all of his past due parking tickets.

Poor Gary! Though I’m glad to hear he came forward and paid his tickets.

Sometimes small towns are cute. I wonder what other things people can get their name in the paper over? And how many people do you think have been gossiping about that scofflaw Gary Corcoran?

Tags: Abe Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln, articles, cars, humor, Illinois, joke, news, parking tickets, parking violation, small towns, Springfield, the boot, tickets
Filed under Illinois, fun | Comments (2)