A woman walked around downtown New Canaan Tuesday handing out printed copies of a letter to shopkeepers and passersby bemoaning a parking ticket that had been issued earlier that afternoon.
The letter, signed by a ‘Mary Ellen Murphy Cavanna’ of Norwalk and addressed to the chief of police, among others, referred to a $30 ticket issued at 1:46 p.m. on July 23 for parking in a no parking zone on Elm Street.
Murphy Cavanna in her letter said, “I double checked my car which was a few inches over a yellow painted striped area and judged that it was perfectly fine.”
A photograph of the car in question (see above), obtained by NewCanaanite.com following a formal request of the New Canaan Parking Bureau, showed its front end to be several feet into a hash-marked area designed to provide a state-required 25-foot vehicle-free buffer zone in front of a pedestrian crosswalk.
Ticketed motorists often are unaware that enforcement officers document vehicles in violation of the parking rules in photos, and are surprised when presented with photographic evidence during appeal hearings.
Murphy Cavanna began her letter, “Having received a ticket to pay $60 from a large man blissfully writing out tickets, I would like the many establishments we have patronized over the years to know our reaction to that summons: Congratulations, you have our money but no longer our good will or our support of the many businesses and restaurants in New Canaan.”
She then listed a number of stores and continued, “Good bye (sic) to the greedy small minded folks who dreamed up this idea of taking money from law abiding citizens to add to the town’s resources. Penny wise, dollar foolish! Life isn’t tough enough for retail stores and restaurants today. Amazon doesn’t give out summonses to people who browse while shopping on the internet. You can extort $60 from us and other customers of New Canaan but we will avoid New Canaan as a result.”
Murphy Cavanna appeared to refer in the letter to a $60 figure that would be due if the ticket was paid 14 days after its issuance date (double the original fine).
Referring to the parking enforcement officer who ticketed her, Murphy Cavanna said, “The fellow you gave the judgment to is not going to suffer the loss of business. He was having a fine time giving out tickets. Good bye to the greedy little police state of the once decent town of New Canaan.”
The letter is signed with Murphy Cavanna’s signature and Rowayton address on it and dated July 23.