Out of Order

I have never seen this happen before. I got a call from John on Thursday - he wanted to get lunch. We agreed to meet at Bertucci's in Kenmore. John found a parking spot right on Beacon St. right outside of Bertucci's.

He parked at a meter that was Out of Order, so he had an hour for free. When we emerged from lunch, John had a $25 ticket, and the meter was suddenly working. I suppose meter have to switch from broken to repaired at some point, but wouldn't it be fair to put for a repairman to put an hour on a meter if a car is parked there when he repairs it? (Assuming a human repairs it and it doesn't all of a sudden awake from brokenville automatically).

I saw a meter maid on the walk back to the office, and explained the problem to her. While she wasn't rude or anything, she said that he probably would have to appeal the fine in writing. Never one to turn down a confrontation, I went in for the kill. I'm sure when she saw me running up to her yelling "excuse me" and then asking a question on John's behalf, she was thinking "uh-oh, how can I get away from this person as quickly as possible."