Man claims he parked for free in town centre thanks to ‘genius’ parking hack… but there is a VERY big catch
- He tried to apply the parking hack on a busy street in Sheffield city centre
A man claims he was able to park for free in a busy city centre thanks to a ‘genius’ parking trick.
In a video that went viral, the driver showed himself and a friend trying out the hack that allowed them to park for free in Sheffield.
In the clip, which was filmed a year ago, the men find a way to get a parking ticket without paying a cent.
A man presses the red button on a ticket machine and then presses the green button repeatedly until a message appears that reads: ‘Ticket is printing’.
A man claims a ‘genius’ parking trick allowed him to park for free in a busy city centre (File photo)
After a journalist from Yorkshire Live decided to put the hack to the test, they raised concerns about the practice and revealed that it might not be such a genius idea after all
The machine then prints out a ticket that says “fees paid,” but no payment is made.
The start time of that ticket was 7:20 PM and the expiration date was 8:20 AM the next morning.
People responded by calling the man a ‘genius’, but a new attempt at the hack has shown that anyone looking for a free parking ticket could be in for a treat.
After a YorkshireLive When the journalist decided to test the hack, they expressed concerns about the practice and revealed that it might not have been such a genius idea after all.
They revealed that, just like in the original video, they first pressed the red button once and then pressed the green button as many times as possible.
They were shocked to see that, just like in the original clip, the machine printed the ticket without requiring any payment form to be submitted.
However, they expected to be able to park for more than 12 hours for free, but to their surprise they only got 20 minutes instead.
The parking meter terms and conditions clearly stated that anyone who purchases a ticket to park their vehicle in an allocated parking space is entitled to 20 minutes of free parking per day.
When they put the experiment to the test, they were stunned to find that they had only been given 20 minutes of free parking instead of 12 hours (File photo)
This confirmed speculation on social media following the clip, in which Instagram users pointed out that the long time shown on their ticket was due to the ticket being purchased outside of terminal opening hours.
That means they could have parked there for free anyway.
In response to the posted clip, users explained how this process could come about:
‘In a zone from 08:00 to 18:30 you will probably get 20 minutes free if you press the green button. You can then simply carry these over to the next day.’
‘After the paid time, the 20 free minutes will be carried over to the next day.’
‘It’s more likely that it was after paid parking ended and you then get 20 minutes of free parking time, which starts at 8am.’