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Here's How You Can Park For Free At Pershing Square's Underground Lot
Now: Pershing Square (Photo by Non Paratus via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr)
While we'll still have to wait awhile before Pershing Square receives a long overdue makeover, you can at least park for free in the plaza's underground lot the next time you head downtown.Thanks to a peculiar class action lawsuit, parking will be free at the Pershing Square lot—which charges up to $16 a day—for a limited time as long as you take a few easy steps before leaving, according to LA Weekly. The little known deal is a result of a class action lawsuit that was settled in January 2015.
The suit dates back to June 2014, when a woman named Ashley Solomon parked in the lot and noticed that after paying with a credit card, the lot's machine printed out all 10 digits of her card. It turns out that printing all the digits is a violation of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act of 2003, which says that:
No person that accepts credit cards or debit cards for the transaction of business shall print more than the last five digits of the card number or the expiration date upon any receipt provided to the cardholder at the point of sale or transaction.
Uh-oh. As a result of the violation and the lawsuit that followed, Ashley Solomon Vs City of Los Angeles, Solomon received $5,000, while the attorneys involved got $90,000 plus $3,000 in expenses, according to LA Weekly. But most relevant to you, is that since the city of L.A. couldn't track down everyone who got one of those 10-digit receipts, they are instead giving out vouchers for free parking that add up to $360,000.
To take advantage of this limited time deal, simply park as you normally would in the lot and before returning to your vehicle, make a pit stop at the first underground level. There's no sign, but you'll find an attendant at a table handing out blue tickets that act as vouchers for free parking. You'll just need to write down your name in a binder and sign it, and that's it. Nobody checks ID, according to LA Weekly.
When asked, the parking attendants said they thought they had been giving out the vouchers for about a month, so there's no telling how long the freebies will continue. So, you better make the most of it, before they run out!
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