Story Archive

For St. Pete’s Sake

Kathryn Socash, 63, had just left a Tampa, Fla., soccer game, and pulled out of her fifth floor parking spot in the McNulty Parking Garage. At the fourth floor, she stopped — there was a line of cars stopped ahead of her. She walked down and found the cause: there was only one working gate with a single attendant collecting the $10 payments to leave the garage. “We’re not talking a few minute delay — we’re talking 2 1/2 hours,” said another waiter. “The word ‘hostage’ came to mind. Until I got to the gate and paid my $10 to get out, I was a hostage.” Next to the gate people were queued up for was an unstaffed gate with a sign, “24HR VIDEO $50 FOR BROKEN GATE”. “I thought that was a small price to pay to stop feeling like a hostage,” Socash said, so she ran through the gate. A few other vehicles managed to escape without paying until police arrived. It cost Soccash a little more than $50, though: after being arrested, she was held for 18 hours before posting $250 bail. (MS/Tampa Bay Times) ...Cheapest ransom ever.