Tipsters: Cars Booted, Towed At Prospect Park Site Already Known As Ticket Trap

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Four parking spaces near Prospect Park in Brooklyn have already been described as a lucrative ticket trap, and now, motorists say authorities have taken it all a step further – booting and towing cars.

Last month, 1010 WINS' Juliet Papa reported on the four spaces at Prospect Park West and 9th Street.

Two signs are mounted overhead, and the bottom sign allows motorists to park there after 1 p.m. But the top sign says, "No standing April 1 to Sept. 30."

Greg Smithsimon, a sociology professor at Brooklyn College, took note of all the tickets in those four spots.

"For this whole stretch of this busy, crowded street a quarter of the tickets come from this little spot right here," he said. "In just six months the city makes about $72,000 in tickets, and it's probably the most valuable street real estate in New York right now.

On Sunday, the New York Daily News reported that the city will replace the signs and allow parking year-round in the four spaces. But two days before that, someone tweeted 1010 WINS' Papa showing cars at the site had been outfitted with the Denver boot.

Martha Hyde tweeted that each motorist will have to pay $300 to get the boot removed.

Cars were also towed from the site before that, another tipster reported to Papa.

Police on Friday could not explain why cars would be booted rather than just ticketed.

The Department of Transportation said the signs will be changed next week.