VIDEO: Crooked valet attendants caught in Los Angeles

[25psi_Elise_Killer]

VIDEO: Crooked valet attendants caught in Los Angeles — Autoblog

It's tough to find a parking spot in Los Angeles, but luckily there are plenty of valets to park your ride for you. The cost ranges from just a few bucks to $20 or more, but when there are places to go, people to see and deadlines to meet, the cost of parking is often better than spending the better part of your afternoon looking for a spot yourself. The problem is, more and more locations have been designated as loading zones and the public parking spaces have been shrinking. The interesting part about this is that the city of Los Angeles itself hasn't been adding the zones – but a bunch of unscrupulous valets have been.

NBC Los Angeles spent a year digging up dirt, and the investigative reporting of the network's Ana Garcia found valets who got into accidents with cars, shuttled co-workers to other spots in customer cars and put up cones and signs illegally. The local NBC affiliate also had cameras rolling as valets parked in front of expired meters, received tickets and didn't tell the car owners. In all, NBC LA and the city's Department of Transportation found over 80 fraudulent loading zone signs, and even after some of the signs were removed, they were back up the next night.

Hit the jump to watch the seven minute video. The investigative journalism is excellent, and the expressions on the faces of the valet workers as they are caught up in lie after lie are priceless. The only bummer is that NBC LA didn't put some cameras in the cars to see if the valets swiped things from people's cars.

[mgreenbl]

Originally Posted by 25psi_Elise_Killer

VIDEO: Crooked valet attendants caught in Los Angeles — Autoblog

It's tough to find a parking spot in Los Angeles, but luckily there are plenty of valets to park your ride for you. The cost ranges from just a few bucks to $20 or more, but when there are places to go, people to see and deadlines to meet, the cost of parking is often better than spending the better part of your afternoon looking for a spot yourself. The problem is, more and more locations have been designated as loading zones and the public parking spaces have been shrinking. The interesting part about this is that the city of Los Angeles itself hasn't been adding the zones – but a bunch of unscrupulous valets have been.

NBC Los Angeles spent a year digging up dirt, and the investigative reporting of the network's Ana Garcia found valets who got into accidents with cars, shuttled co-workers to other spots in customer cars and put up cones and signs illegally. The local NBC affiliate also had cameras rolling as valets parked in front of expired meters, received tickets and didn't tell the car owners. In all, NBC LA and the city's Department of Transportation found over 80 fraudulent loading zone signs, and even after some of the signs were removed, they were back up the next night.

Hit the jump to watch the seven minute video. The investigative journalism is excellent, and the expressions on the faces of the valet workers as they are caught up in lie after lie are priceless. The only bummer is that NBC LA didn't put some cameras in the cars to see if the valets swiped things from people's cars.

Loved it. Thanks for sharing.

Mark

[Gizmo3000]

Thanks for sharing.
man I hate dealing with parking in Hollywood.
- I'd never take my Elise there either. it's either Valet, or get a no-front-plate ticket there.

[Seb]

She should have called the cops when that fat, worthless, oxygen thief tried to make her pay $6.

[Peter95]

geez..... what a scam artists these guys are... they should be fined big time for tampering with public streets

[Flash G]

About 8 or 9 years ago I was producing the series "Eye on LA" for ABC here in Los Angeles. We used to do lots of restaurant reviews. One Saturday I was at a new French restaurant in Hollywood to produce a segment. I valet parked my car. I spent about 3 or 4 hours inside doing interviews, shooting video, etc..

When I got home, there was a message from my bank that they had stopped a rash of transactions on one of my credit cards. Apparently, the valet who parked my car got into a bag in the cargo area, stole a credit card inside, and gave it to a friend who ran up about $300 in charges at 6 different gas stations in Glendale. All within the time that I was in the restaurant.

I reported it to the cops, who basically told me that they couldn't do anything because there was no proof of who took the card from my car. I also informed the owner of the restaurant about the theft. He promptly fired the ENTIRE valet company and hired a different one.

Lesson learned. I never leave ANYTHING valuable in a car that I valet park.


.

[spf4000]

Another reason why I'd rather walk barefoot a mile over broken glass than let a valet park my car.

[kestrel74]

Never. Ever.