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Begging Their Pardon

The police department in Lewiston, Maine, believes that to err is human. So it's being pretty divine about forgiving parking tickets-- but only for first-time violators whose meters have run out.

The police department in Lewiston, Maine, believes that to err is human. So it's being pretty divine about forgiving parking tickets-- but only for first-time violators whose meters have run out.

About three years ago, when overtime parking fines were raised from $2 to $5, the police chief decided that those who received tickets could get out of paying once a year simply by writing a letter asking for mercy. Police don't like writing tickets, but it's a "necessary evil," says Sergeant Michael McGonagle. It encourages turnover at downtown parking spaces, and the town hopes people will want to frequent local merchants instead of heading straight for the big malls.

Surprisingly, only about 50 people ask for clemency, out of the thousands of tickets written each year. Some of those letters, all of which have been handwritten, have been pretty detailed. One page-long letter described how "four of us girls," all in their mid-70s, were having lunch at a deli and came out to find two of their cars ticketed. It went on to describe lunch conversations that ranged from one woman's chemotherapy progress to another's trip to Italy. The writer enclosed a check, not expecting to be exonerated for her high crime. She was anyway.

Another writer enclosed a doctor's note, explaining that she suffered from Alzheimer's and was very forgetful. One violator's note came in on heart-shaped stationery relating that she hadn't gotten a ticket in all the 17 years she'd lived in the area--until then.

Neither the quality of the letter nor the stationery have anything to do with whether the person is let off the hook. All are forgiven. The police simply need documentation to reconcile the number of tickets received with the amount of money taken in. McGonagle says, "It's more of a record-keeping thing."

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