Parking Ticket
This is what a parking ticket in Venezuela looks like.
This is how it happened.
I was heading to the local mall to recharge my phone when I saw the police putting stickers on the cars I was about to park next to. I thought about driving on, but I was in a hurry and wanted to save the 15 minutes it would have taken to park in the garage. So I rolled down the window to ask the parking guy.
Every street around the city seems to have a parking guy — a self appointed parking attendant who “watches” the cars and collects tips. Some seem to be more territorial than others. This particular parking guy advised me that I should park in the spot I was eyeing because sure, the police would put the sticker on the car, but in reality nothing would happen. So I trusted him.
As I was walking away from the car, I watched the police put the sticker on windshield. They didn’t remove the parking attendant from the area, even though he would most likely continue to park cars there so it obviously is not a very serious offense for the police. The most serious part was the stickiness of the sticker. When I returned from shopping, the parking attendant took his dollar tip and introduced me to his razor-blade-toting buddy who was willing to take the sticker off the windshield for an extra dollar.
I wonder if the police have decided that there is no point in giving an actual fine because, well, the inefficiency of the government office charged with processing such fines would be render the whole process quite absurd. Whatever the reason, I’m okay with it.
Fino Cambur 
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