San Francisco Continued

Yesterday, we enjoyed lunch at a fine Mongolian BBQ restaurant in Mountain View, CA. Even though the ownership has changed four times since the last time I ate there, is was still great food. Then came a scare followed by an expensive lesson. We had driven the rental car back to the hotel for a quick bio break for Karen. The original plan was for me to drive around the block while Karen made a trip up to the room. Then we saw a parking meter available and I figured if I had change I would come up, too. I only had enough silver for about 20 minutes, so I plunked it in the meter and rode the elevator up. Only ten minutes later we headed back down to the car. When we walked out, my mouth dropped open and my heart almost stopped. The rental car was gone, yes gone. My first thought was it got stolen, as I pictured someone breaking the window and then jimmying the ignition and driving off.
We walked back into the hotel and announced that our rental car was gone. Noticing the panic in my voice, the desk clerk calmly said I must have parked at a commuter hour parking meter and got towed. She said to call the number on the meter, which I did and got an automatic message telling me where to go to retrieve the car. We needed the license plate so we had to walk over to the rental agency to get it. There the guy said to expect to pay around $360 to get it released. He gave us directions to the tow yard across from the cop shop. Rough neighborhood, but we got there and for the mere price of three hundred and thirty bucks, they would let us have our rental car back. To top that off, there was a $75 ticket on the windshield. As upsetting as the whole episode was, I was extremely cordial to the employees at the towing yard; I figured they probably faced pretty upset people all day.
Turns out tow trucks drive around and look for violators who park by these special meters. Had I read the fine print or stayed in the car, I would have avoided the traumatic episode, but I didn’t. It’s a scam as far as I am concerned as well as a waitress and parking patrol man I spoke to throughout the rest of that day. Parking is a premium in San Francisco and if you don’t watch it, it will cost you plenty. Needless to say, we returned the car that afternoon. While we had it the rest of the day, we were afraid to park anywhere. In fact, I thought the cops would catch me doing something else wrong and haul me off. Lesson learned: beware where you park in San Francisco. Make one mistake and you will pay out the nose.