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VIDEO: In Israel, City Paints Car Into Handicap Spot, Then Tows It

A car after it was painted into a handicapped space.
YouTube
A car after it was painted into a handicapped space.

There is plenty of unfairness in life. But today, an Israeli woman is getting some justice after the city of Tel Aviv tried to pull a fast one.

In a video Hila Ben Baruch posted on Facebook Monday, Tel Aviv municipal workers are seen painting the pavement and curb around her car. By the time they're done, it's clear that they've painted the car into a handicapped spot.

Shortly after the workers are done painting, a tow truck shows up and takes the car away.

Haaretz reports that Ben Baruch complained to the city, which told her she was responsible for the fine. Haaretz writes:

" 'You just see it and can't believe it,' Ben Baruch wrote when she posted the video, which she got from an office building across the street that has a surveillance camera trained on the parking lot.

" 'While my car was parked in a [legal] blue-and-white spot, two municipal workers came by and signposted it as handicapped parking! In a heartbeat they repainted the curb, from blue and white to gray. That's it. Simple,' she wrote. 'Within 5 minutes they turned me into a criminal. But who cares? The important thing is that Tel Aviv sucked some more blood.' "

Luckily, Ben Baruch dug up security video, and the city relented.

"We apologize for the distress and will examine our conduct for the future, so that these kinds of things won't happen again," the city told Haaretz.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Eyder Peralta is NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya.