Man Says City Removed Parking Sign, Put Up Bus Stop Sign, And Gav

A man in Montreal is going to court to battle the city over a parking ticket he says was issued just minutes after crews set up a bus stop without warning.

Lino Monteleone says that early in the morning a week ago on April 1st, his daughter came in the house to show him a ticket that was left on her car overnight on the street in front of their neighborhood.

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He told CTV News, "The night before, there was parking on the street."

After going through their doorbell camera video, he says he has footage of transport employees (known locally as the Société de transport de Montréal) placing a new bus stop sign on their front lawn shortly before 8am.

Then just a few minutes later at 8:05am, he watched as a city parking agent rolled up and ticketed the car.

Monteleone says he called 311, but was told they can’t cancel a ticket that was already issued, so he would have to contest the fine.

“Now, I got to waste my time to go contest the ticket, and if they refuse, I actually got to go to court and spend four or five hours in a courtroom to fight a ticket, which is completely, completely wrong,” he said.

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Monteleone, as well as the entirety of the comment sections, feel that the sign should've come with a notification that it'd be put up on the street.

The transportation company says that the sign was placed because of some construction happening nearby. They also told CTV News they don't inform residents of installation or relocation of their bus stops, because there's 10,000 bus stops in Montreal, so drivers should just stay vigilant.

Lawyer Thierry Rassam, president of S.O.S. Tickets, says Monteleone has a good case to contest the fine.

“There’s nothing he could have done to prevent this,” he said. “I mean, you’re not going to go and check every five minutes to see if they’re changing signage and to move your car.”

Monteleone is going to head to court over the ticket.

He also said that since the sign was added, he's yet to see any busses come by.