On Friday 06/07/2019, we suffered a very unfortunate incident in the Miami-Dade area. This is our story:
Our good friend and boat owner invited us to get to know the Miami Skyline from a new perspective, the ocean. We gladly accepted the offer, and agreed all to meet at the Dinners Key Marina. We got there around 3:00pm, and our friend already had his boat ready in the water. We looked for a parking space of our two other cars, and after a quick search found good spots at the north-west corner of the lot, right next to other already parked cars, without trailers on them.
We followed the instructions on the parking sign (parkbyphone), making sure no mistake were made. Under the parkbyphone sign, there is another sign indicating: "VEHICLES AND TRAILERS MEASURING MORE THAN 40 FT. ARE NOT PERMITTED". I emphasize the word AND, since to my knowledge this means that it is either one, the other, or both. Otherwise, it should state: "VEHICLES WITH TRAILERS...". In our case, our SUV is less than 40 feet long. Our parking fee for $20.00 was paid, and very excited we all took off to our new adventure on the ocean.....
The views of the city were breathtaking and amazing, and we all enjoyed this perfect afternoon, admiring the views of this city with which we have fallen in love these past years.....
At around 8:30pm, we got back to the Marina, discovering that our cars had disappeared!!!! Luckily, at the parking lot a police patrol was present, and immediately helped us out. We searched for any TOW AWAY ZONE SIGNS, but could not find any. The police officers continued to make several calls, and finally, after about 20 minutes, they got with the exact address our two cars were towed to. Meanwhile, we tried to understand what we had done wrong. Searching with the police officers, we found one VERY FADED SIGN, indicating that it is prohibited to park cars without trailers (???!!). As you could understand, this was extremely upsetting for us, since we believed we had done everything right, in paying our parking fees. Where else should we park our cars? Why, if this parking lot is only for vehicles with trailers, aren't there any more signs indicating this? I would have appreciated it a sign under each parkbyphone, stating 'VEHICLES WITH TRAILERS ONLY". Even the helpful police officers, on a very personal note, agreed with us, that it is confusing.
We headed over to the tow parking lot, and paid our VERY EXPENSIVE fee of $150.50, and were able to drive back home with our car. I cannot emphasize enough my frustration with this whole incident. We consider ourselves responsible and law obeying citizens, and are careful in following the rules. I have a perfect driving record, and as it states on my driver's license, I am considered a SAFE DRIVER. We truly feel that the signs at the marina are misleading, or at least not very informative. Is it so hard to at least renew a so very discolored and faded sign? Reading them afterwards, we understand we broke the rules and had to pay the consequences of it, but it leaves us with an unjust sense. If you google the satellite image of the marina, one can even see several cars parked without trailers attached to them. Miami-Dade has spoiled us with flexibility and friendliness, but in this case, it has left us with a very bitter taste...... read more