Sting brings legality of booting into question

The battle over booting between university students and Cache Auto Booting wages on, this time with a new twist.

Three USU students, led by Brady Newswander, junior in accounting, parked their vehicles in parking-permit-only lots, Wednesday, Sept. 26, to intentionally get booted. This was all part of an operation Newswander calls “Serpent Sting,” where these students would get booted so they could have legal grounds to press charges against Cache Auto Booting for what Newswander said he believes is a violation of a Logan City ordinance.

Newswander said after researching the city ordinance regarding booting, he believes Cache Auto Booting has been illegally booting students since May because signs in 14 parking lots in Logan do not comply with sign specifications outlined in Ordinance 07-16.

“I’m personally not against booting, and I’m not against (the owner of Cache Auto Booting),” Newswander said. “I’ve met some of his subcontractors, and they’re very nice. I’m against the concept that (Cache Auto Booting) has been unlawful for almost a decade and doesn’t care. I would much rather see a new booting company born that is completely lawful.”

Under Ordinance No. 07-16 C.1, the city code states that “at a minimum, signage shall: i. Provide sufficient information to assist vehicle owners in the prompt recovery of any vehicle booted; ii. Be at least 12 inches by 18 inches in size and have a reflective background. iii. Be placed at all entrances to the parking lot and be clearly visible.”

Newswander said Cache Auto Booting complies with almost all aspects of the code except for the detail of reflective background. Newswander said his problem with offending signs is that they have reflective trim, not a complete reflective background like those used on speed limit signs or license plates.

The reflective tape does not fully illuminate the sign, Newswander said, and makes it difficult to know if parking in a given parking lot is prohibited.

“Say you’re pulling into a parking lot, you can’t read the reflective trim from the car. You’d have to walk over to the sign and read the sign,” Newswander said. “I feel the reflective background informs the reasonable person that he will be booted if he parked there.”

The owner of Cache Auto Booting, who preferred to remain unnamed for protection reasons, said his company operates according to the laws found in the city ordinances, including the detail about the reflective background.

“The students are incomplete in their research process,” he said. “That ordinance was created after all of those signs had been erected and once those signs were erected and they passed the city ordinance, the city agreed that all those city signs would be acceptable under the city ordinance.”

The reflective background required for booting signs was also a requirement of the old booting ordinance. However, the owner of Cache Auto Booting said reflective tape was good enough for the signs then. Because the signs were placed before the new ordinance went into effect, they would be legal for up to 12 months, the result of a deal he worked out with the city attorney.

“Those signs are completely legal and have the approval of the city attorney until they are replaced,” the manager of Cache Auto Booting said.

Lee Edwards, prosecuting attorney for Logan City, said when the new ordinance was enacted, there was a grace period provided by the city to make the necessary changes with the expectation the signs would be replaced to current standards as soon as possible. Edwards said this is a common practice with a new ordinance so as not to place undue financial burdens on a company.

Even though this grace period was in place, Newswander said it still doesn’t explain why the signs weren’t compliant with the original code that required signs “with a reflective background.”

The general manager of Cache Auto Booting said this is just another case of students trying to get around the law.

“The thing that these students are unwilling to accept is that when they drive onto a property that has a reflective sign, that sign says permit parking only, you are trespassing,” he said. “When students get booted because they trespass, they want to figure out how to get around the law. They can’t fight it in court because Quinn Millet lost that one, so they nitpick with the signs.”

The real issue then, is what a reflective background really means, and it will take a judge to determine that, Edwards said.

“What a court would do is look at a dictionary definition and apply a specific definition to that,” Edwards said. “Anything under the ordinance would simply be subject to the court’s reading of the language.”

If this case were to go to court, like Newswander wants, and the court were to determine the signs did not meet the specifications in the ordinance, Cache Auto Booting could potentially face a revocation of its business license and be subject to a class B misdemeanor – the penalty for failing to comply with any part of the ordinance.

If the court were to determine the signs were legal, Newswander’s “Serpent Sting” would result in him and his partners losing $70 apiece.

Either way, Adam Dickey, junior in accounting who had his car booted as part of the operation, said, “It’s worth a try. I think it’s a worthwhile effort to do this sort of thing because it’s getting down to how business should be done. It should meet certain codes. I’m willing to go for it all the way, as much as it takes. If the attorneys and the judge were to rule that it does fit the description of this law, then I really think that it should be changed to the point where it has reflective signs like a speed limit sign.

“The ideal scenario would be that the business would be able to change signs around the parking lot it’s enforcing. People should be aware of where people should and should not park.”

Dickey’s ideal scenario has already come true. As of Saturday, Sept. 29, Cache Auto Booting replaced all offending signs with reflective background signs that fully meet ordinance specifications.

“This company has gone out and ordered signs to bring every single one of those into compliance,” said the owner of Cache Auto Booting, “and it cost this company a bundle to do that.”

The owner of Cache Auto Booting said he is not out to boot at random; he is doing what the businesses he contracts with want – to provide parking spaces for their residents.

“Our job is not to boot cars in parking lots,” he said. “That’s a product of what we do. Our job is to make sure that the tenants who pay for those parking spaces have a place to park when they pull into their driveway. Our job is to keep those people from stealing parking spaces from the people who pay for them.”