Braingle: 'Parking Scam' Brain Teaser

Parking Scam

Situation puzzles (sometimes called lateral thinking puzzles) are ones where you need to ask lots of yes or no questions to figure out what happened in the situation. These are good puzzles for groups where one person knows the puzzle and answers the questions.

Puzzle ID:	#5489
Fun:	(3.07)
Difficulty:	(2.79)
Category:	Situation
Submitted By:	Sir_Col

Sir Col was touring Europe in his car and arrived in the city of Zurich, Switzerland. Upon locating a parking space next to a lake he placed enough money in the parking meter for one hour. Two hours later he returned to his car to find a parking ticket on his windscreen.

After a little thought he came up with an idea, and in thirty minutes he was able to drive out of the city without any need of paying his fine. How did he perform this scam?

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Comments

bubblebathe143 Jul 24, 2002	good though the answer is out of the world.
Drunky Jul 24, 2002	sorry... i was gonna say thats a really good teaser
NotSoLilGeorge Jul 26, 2002	Indeed, it is good.
(user deleted) Jul 26, 2002	Perhaps Sir Col could have torn up the ticket and left Zurich, never to return. Would the police would put out a man-hunt for an unpaid parking ticket?
bluetwo Aug 09, 2002	nice one! i enjoyed it =)
HelloKittyRocks Sep 15, 2002	i thought he put more money in the meter and told the police
dsquared Sep 18, 2002	Great situation teaser, one of my faves I've seen. Good work.
cristos Sep 18, 2002	after your comments...ugh
flynn Sep 18, 2002	Good one! The only (dumb) thing I could think of was that he might have put the ticket on a nearby car, hoping that the driver wouldn't check the license number. (I said it was dumb!)
dizzydesi Sep 18, 2002	What a wonderful idea. I will try it next time I get a ticket!
blinkgoddess182 Sep 18, 2002	I thought it might have had something to do with the currency exchange, but the declared answer works well, too..
(user deleted) Sep 20, 2002	Uh huh. The Swiss must be different then. If you tried that anywhere near where I live, the cops would say sorry but we're busy busting minor drug offenders.
(user deleted) Oct 05, 2002	Sir Col, ur a bad influence ;)
speedyg1000 Dec 08, 2002	I didn't think that they would let him off so easy...but that was a realy good one!
Pheonix_down Mar 08, 2003	Ditto to the first comment
horse_luver Mar 16, 2003	kinda weird... OK... not what I woulda said but that works too...
jimbo Sep 16, 2003	I don't uderstand the answer. When an infringement notice is issued, the details of the car are entered into an official log. You can't just tear up the ticket or ignore it. What does it matter if the police find the car for him? Won't the infringement still be recorded?
username Jul 30, 2004	very interesting. but i could never get it because of the lake. are there that many lakes in zurich? i saw the city featured on a tv show and i don't remember seeing lakes.
wabs27 Feb 08, 2005	If only that would work in NY...
pennylane Apr 17, 2005	Nice teaser!
maxpayne5th Apr 03, 2006	Dam! gotta try that! That was good!
akl21 Jul 18, 2006	That's wonderful! I'll have to remember that for future reference joking
irar1792 Nov 06, 2006	there's a bit of sarcasm against the police there...
4demo May 27, 2007	Clever but not very ethical! Nice teaser!
princess2007 Mar 08, 2011	if only i cud pass off as a tourist in NY!! sigh