A west Wilmette parking lot that was the scene earlier this year of spats between private parking enforcement and drivers who parked there while visiting the Dairy Queen next door generated a confrontation Sept. 23, according to a Wilmette police report.
Police reported that a man whose car had been booted in the parking lot of a strip mall at 3520 Lake Ave. shortly after 4 p.m. that day confronted the parking enforcement employee who put the boot on. Police said the employee told police she booted the man’s car after she saw him leave the parking lot property and go to the Dairy Queen store next door, at 3510 Lake Ave.
Police stated that signs in the parking lot warn drivers not to park there when they are headed elsewhere, including the Dairy Queen. Authorities said the signs indicate if drivers do, they risk having their cars booted by a private parking enforcement company hired by the lot owner.
Police said the parking enforcement employee, whom they found sitting on the ground and crying when they arrived, told them the man had yelled at her when she told him he would have to pay a fine to get the boot removed from his car. He reportedly told her “he wasn’t going to pay anything and he wanted to call her boss,” police said.
Then he reportedly got a hammer from the trunk of his car and used it to beat the boot off his tire. Police said the employee told them the man pushed her to the ground when she tried to put another boot on his vehicle, then got in the car and drove away.
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Police said a witness took down the man’s license plate number, and authorities traced it to a Chicago address. The parking lot employee’s manager told police he found a call left on his phone that appeared to be from the same person.
Initial police reports didn’t say whether investigators were able to contact the man.
In May, patrons of the Dairy Queen had complained that the parking enforcement company was too eager to boot vehicles parked in the lot. Drivers had to pay fines of $130 to $140 to get the boots removed.
At the time, a spokesman for Chicago Parking Management, the company, said the parking lot owner, MJK Real Estate, had decided to enforce long-standing parking prohibitions by booting cars of those who regularly and improperly parked in the lot to go to the Dairy Queen.
By June 22, the owner of the Dairy Queen, Bill Ridge, said that he and representatives of MJK Real Estate agreed that booting efforts would end after 9 p.m., but that they would continue until that time.
A call to MJK Real Estate seeking comment on Sept. 25 was not returned.