'No Parking' Signs Have West Side Drivers Confused

CHICAGO (CBS) -- "No parking" signs are supposed to easy to read, but what if they're confusing?

CBS 2's Jim Williams reports drivers in one West Side community found out the hard way.

Mark Robbins parked outside a home to remove a wild animal and returned to his truck to find a $50 parking ticket on the windshield.

But surely he saw the sign that says "no parking on the first Tuesday" of the month for street sweeping.

Robbins says it didn't make much sense to him, which is why he ignored it.

That's understandable. The sign has the "no parking" symbol, but then it reads: when a light is flashing red, no parking. Green or no light, parking permitted.

There is no light at all on the sign or on other nearby parking signs.

In other Chicago residential neighborhoods, the familiar cardboard street sweeping signs are wrapped around trees and poles, but not near Western and Roosevelt.

"I've been here for about five years, the lights were never installed. The signs were up but the lights were never on them at all," said Juan Fernandez.

Still, city workers were writing tickets today. Visitors like Mark Robbins got stung.

"You gotta make revenue somewhere right? Misleading signs," said Robbins.

This was supposed to be a pilot program, that's why those signs are only in that three block area.

City spokeswoman Kelley Quinn says the signs are coming down. But city workers are still writing tickets. Spokeswoman Quinn says those who get tickets should take a photo of the signs and contest the tickets.