Hasty parkers feel swift, pricey boot

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - If you're looking for prime parking in downtown Albuquerque and don't want to pay of it, get ready to pony up an extra $50 for that sub sandwich.

It costs $2 dollars an hour to park at the lot on the north side of Lomas Boulevard NW between 5th and 6th Streets.

But if you try to run into the courthouse or nearby Subway for just a minute without paying, you'll probably get booted.

KRQE News 13 found plenty of people willing to take the risk, and many of them returned to find a big yellow boot clamped around a wheel disabling their vehicle.

To get it off, you have to pay the boot man $50--cash.

The Subway sandwich shop right next door is owned by Gerald Madrid, but he doesn't provide any free parking spots.

The parking lot is owned by Richard Chavez who told News 13 he leases the lot to a local company.

"We have a lot of angry customers because they think I own the parking lot," Madrid said. "I have no control of the parking lot, and I have no interest in the parking."

The bottom line is that what the boot man is doing is legal. The lot is privately owned, and there are plenty of signs warning that people will get a boot on their vehicle if they don't pay.

But drivers say how it's being done is questionable.

"It's sneaky" one driver said.

Another called it "rather slimy."

News 13 cameras documented how the boot man picks his cars. He sits inside his grey car on the lot waiting for people to leave their cars without paying to park.

Almost as soon as they walk away from their cars, boot man moves in and clams the heavy metal device on the car.

Boot man then gets in his car and waits a few spots away with his cell phone until the unlucky parker discovers the boot and calls the number left on a window sticker.

The boot man gets out of his car and walks over and collects the $50.

"I had to pawn some stuff off, some jewelry to pay the $50 cash," Geraldine Hernandez told News 13.

While Michael Hanauer went into Subway to get lunch with his son and didn't pay, the boot man was disabling his car in the parking lot outside.

Hanauer was quite upset when he came out and saw the boot and confronted the man he saw walking around his car.

"I could have paid $2 over there, and you just stood here and watched me do this," Hanauer told him. "You make pretty good money at this I'd imagine."

But Hanauer forked over the cash and the boot came off.

Chavez, who owns the lot, said he has no problem with how the booting is done. He says it's the only way to get some people to pay.

The man who is going the booting declined to speak with News 13.