Chicagoan Catches City Vehicle Blocking Fire Hydrant
(CBS) -- Randall Egge and his dogs were out for a walk Monday when he saw two city of Chicago Transportation Department vehicles pull up and park.
One of them was in a tow zone on the west side of Kingsbury, the other snuggled up to and blocked a fire hydrant.
"I was flabbergasted that they would actually park somewhere where we get ticketed all the time," Egge, who took iPhone photos, tells CBS 2's Mike Parker.
He says he spoke to the driver who was next to the hydrant.
"I say, 'Make sure you give yourself a ticket,' and he turned around and he laughed and he goes, ''I'll be sure to do that,'" he said.
The two men, Egge says, walked up the block seemingly headed for the Whole Foods store.
A Chicago Fire Department spokesman says firefighters can lose precious seconds if a vehicle is keeping fire hoses from proper hookups. He calls it a safety hazard.
The man who runs the Chicago website Epiredmeter.com says there's double standard on tickets here.
"If anybody else had parked in that location, they would have been hit with a $150 ticket. There's a chance they would have been towed," Mike Brockaway says.
Those drivers could be in hot water. A CDOT spokesman says unless they were on official business, the employees must adhere to parking regulations.
An investigation is underway and it could lead to disciplinary action.
