Booted! a Guide to the Inevitable Car Boot...

We have all seen it...or have been the victim of the trolling antics of meter maids and thier hellatious counterparts, the city "emplyed" tow truck driver.

In my case, it was the latter...

So after a long day of work I come to find a large, heavy metal (unlike Pantera), leach stuck to my driver side wheel... *Explative deleted!...and boy were there some curse words!

It turns out the city of New Orleans decided to have some vigilante justice dealt out by tow truck drivers and meter maids in the form of Das'Auto Boot!

A van fixed with a license plate reader, hooked to a computer was driving around town looking for and scanning any and all vechicles that had unpaid parking violations, speed camera tickets, police dealt moving violations, etc and they would then boot your vechile. As unfair as this is... a city cited wound wouldn't be enough for them, so rubbing salt in the wound by have the booted have to CALL IN TO A CITY DEPARTMENT TO GET A 5 DIGIT CODE (*CURSED WORD CURSE WORD CURSE WORD), to only be told that not only can we not contest the eledged charges, but we would have to pay the charges AND a "code fee" in order to get the boot off...(the Boot fee...$150!!! * Explative deleted!!!!!!!!! Oh, and then.... I would have to bring the boot back to the police lot...seriously...really? ...

So...i figured... lets see how i could remove this without having to pay anything...i mean.... lets see how this thing works....

Step 1: Assess the Enemy and Plan Your Attack

$400 bucks later....*grits teeth, curses, and shakes head.

I get the code to remove the boot...NOW...I will teach you how to remove this contraption with only a screwdriver.

Assess the Enemy:

Review the pictures and notes....

These things are so simple to take apart...

Step 2: I Am the Key Master....

Materials:

1) Screwdriver that accepts different bits

2) Safety/Tamper Resistant Star Bit (Has a hole in the middle)

3) Phillips head screw driver bit

THATS IT!!

Step 3: Surgery

Time to dissect!

Step 4: Inner Workings

The boot-o-hate gutted and left to die..

I eventually and begrudgingly put it back together and in working order, returned this spawned beast to the inner city munipipality of which it slithered from....but now YOU know how to get out of a boot so your wallet will not be $400 bucks thinner....ridicoulous!

Comments

[studentsa]

you are doing gods work my friend. these things are criminal and my car has not been released even after paying the fee. I am left down the money from the fee and having to rent a car for the entire weekend (they will not "remove immobilization" until monday. WHY?! you have enough money from my pockets to staff the place year round) unless I can get this damn thing off. worst thing is that this happened at my place of work. ie where I go to get the money to pay your damn tickets and fees!

[jeffliss]

So, a spell-check might be helpful before posting. Good information, though.

[ZaneEricB]

noted... and yes, spell check would have been helpful...i'll edit this as soon as i get a chance. thanks for looking!

[Chuck Stephens]

I would imagine that once the boot is on you'll get hit with the fee whether you remove it yourself or get the code from them. I wouldn't be surprised if they charged you with some added charge for removing it yourself. Seems easier just to pay your tickets or avoid getting them in the first place.

[ZaneEricB]

ah a realist!

and yes... a fee would be assessed regardless...however, 6 cars down a lady was having an issue with her boot. the code would not work and she was quoted a minimum of 4 hours until a cop could come and release the boot.... could you imagine have to wait atleast 4 hours until anyone would show?! just so you could go home....

so this little trick worked for her :)

[ascardina]

one problem: wouldn't those screws be right against your tire? if there was enough of a gap I suppose you could get a right angle bit driver in there...

[ZaneEricB]

usually the person putting this on the tire does not fit it snuggly...however, if they do, yes a right angle driver/ratchet will work