Legal Question in Traffic Law in Illinois

I work at a shopping mall in Illinois that gets really busy on the weekends and there aren't enough parking spaces to accommodate all customers & employees. The mall management and security came up with a rule that employees cannot park at the mall parking lot on weekends to make space for customers. They created an "off-site" parking area down the road which employees have to inconveniently park there and take a shuttle bus over to the mall to get to work. The cars of people they "believed" worked at the mall they would put a sticker on them saying that they were in violation of not parking offsite. They had no way of knowing these cars belong to employees they just based if off the cars that were parked there the most frequently. I have been working in the mall for 3 years and I have always parked in the mall parking lot but recently I put a Obama bumper sticker on my car so I have been getting stickers from them every weekend. Just this week they released a memo, that I just read last night, saying that they will no longer be warning cars & immediately towing them. Keep in mind there are not signs saying we have to park off-site. There was no oral, written consent or agreement from employees. The corporate offices of the stores were not notified about this towing either. Today after leaving work I found that my car was missing. I had no notice given because the mall management/security does not know who I am and that I am even an employee of the mall. I found myself searching the whole mall trying to find a security guard or person of management and they were know where to be found. I ended up reporting my car stolen to the police and they told me my car had been towed. I called the towing place and paid $198 to get my car out. Another young lady happened to be there from the mall and we found out we were the only two cars towed that day and she also had an Obama sticker on her car. There are several issues with this situation and I want to know if my car was illegally towed and was I and the other young lady possibly targeted as well.


Asked on 11/11/12, 8:17 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Stephen Messutta

Can't tell even with the amount of information you gave. Sounds like this was a rule that you were given notice of, and then notice of towing. The campaign sticker may have just been the way they figured out you are an employee. Many malls require tenant staff tot register their plates and park either in designated area or off site. I just don't have a gut feeling that a judge (or jury) would necessarily find a connection between the tows and the stickers as suggesting you were targeted other than the sticker made your (and the other employee's car) "obvious" when it showed up day after day..... And unless you can prove some kind of unlawful discrimination, it's like the story of the speeder who gets caught when everyone else is speeding too: just because the speeder was caught and others were not doesn't mean the speeder broke the law and without proof of some ulterior illegal motive the fact that the other speeders were not stopped is generally not a defense..... PS the bigger picture could be that you are lucky that the mall didn't fine your employer for your parking -- some malls do this and then the employer could have grounds to take the fine out of your pay, or discipline you, or both......

Read more
Answered on 11/12/12, 9:33 am


Related Questions & Answers

More Traffic Law questions and answers in Illinois