A Buffalo Grove business owner known to charge people for parking in his private lot without permission has said he will stop writing his own form of parking tickets after being warned by police about the legal consequences.
For about a year, Chuck Anderson, who operates Epix Inc., a camera equipment and software manufacturer along Lexington Drive, has been known to charge unwanted people $100 to exit his business’ parking lot.
They typically park there when the lot of The Sweatshop, a nearby gym at 358 Lexington Drive, is filled, both Anderson and Sweatshop owner Matt Kuhlman have said.
When Sweatshop customers return to retrieve their cars parked at Epix, they usually find one of Anderson’s cars parked behind their car and Anderson waiting to charge them. He even accepts credit cards and will print them receipts, Anderson said.
When a Sweatshop customer was handed a receipt in early September after paying to free her car from Anderson’s lot, she took it to the Buffalo Grove Police Department. An officer later warned Anderson his parking lot charges were illegal.
“I advised him his actions were illegal and he is not allowed to prevent people from leaving,” a Buffalo Grove officer wrote in the police report. “I advised him of the potential legal consequences of his actions.”
After the warning, Anderson said he will stop writing his own form of parking tickets and charging Sweatshop customers for parking in his lot. But he has been frustrated by people using his lot without permission, even though it is often empty.
Anderson said he used to ask Sweatshop customers to stay out of his lot, but repeat offenders became rude to him.
“They just don’t care,” he said. “They think it’s like public parking — they can do anything they want.”
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He even considered working with a tow company but saw revenue potential by trying to charge people on his own. Businesses don’t receive a profit when a tow company removes cars from private lots, he explained.
Kuhlman said Anderson was told numerous times to stop charging people. To address overflow parking issues at The Sweatshop, Kuhlman worked out an arrangement with the Long Grove Confectionary Factory Store, 333 Lexington Drive, to allow customers to use a back parking lot.
But Anderson’s lot still is located closer to the fitness center, Kuhlman said. He also tries to warn customers about Anderson’s practice, although first-time customers usually learn the hard way, he said.
“They see this giant lot always empty,” Kuhlman said. “They just go immediately over there.”
Depite the warning from police about writing his own parking tickets, Anderson said he still is going to find a way to try and stop people from using his lot without permission.
He is thinking about buying a few junk cars, parking them behind unwanted cars and leaving them until he thinks people have learned their lesson, he said.
Twitter @RonnieAtPioneer