Don't Tow our Car!

Around 1:30pm today, as we were finishing up our lunch in the back of our house, we heard Paul start to cry. He had just gone down for a nap a little while earlier and once I checked on him, I saw no obvious reason for his tears -- he wasn't dirty, wet, hot, cold or bored -- and both arms were still neatly swaddled.

Immediately after I checked on Paul, we heard our downstairs neighbors yelling out "MARK MARK!" with frantic urgency, so Mark rushed to the front balcony to see what was happening. It was a good thing that we had gone to check on Paul closer to the front of the house or we may not have heard them.

Our Ford Escape was about to be TOWED away right in front of our house! A Dominican police officer had it up on the tow truck and had given the signal for the driver to take it away! What in the world!?
Mark ran down the stairs and through our front gate, to find various neighbors of ours already yelling at the officer -- telling him NOT TO TAKE OUR CAR! One guy from the across the street, who we don't even really know was telling the officer, "They're good people! You shouldn't do this to them!" And the woman who lives next door (the one who owned the chicken who flew over to our roof last year) was yelling at him as well... as was the Haitian guy painting the orange building next door!

Quickly, Mark found out that the police were starting to fine for parking up on the sidewalk, and our car had two wheels up over the curb. (Shocking that there were various other cars parked on the sidewalks today on our street, but none of them got a ticket or fine...) He was taking our car away unless we would pay a fee right there on the spot. How much? About US $60. Mark asked for a paper ticket, which the officer didn't have. Mark only had about Us $35, so would that be acceptable? Yes.

The officer took the money, stuck it in his pocket and signaled the driver to lower our vehicle back onto the street. At this point, I walked out and asked why none of the other cars were getting towed or fined that were parked on the street -- and there was no reason at all. We were a "random towing" I guess... or maybe they knew there were gringos living in the house with the green Ford Escape... like our neighbors suggested? Who knows... quien sabe...

Thankfully, Mark re-parked our car, off the curb, and we went back to finishing our lunch in the back of our house.

Considering that I had just gotten a ticket from a Dominican police officer on Monday, for talking on my cell phone while driving, this is turning out to be an expensive, and troubling, week with the law.