Beware of 'pretendants' at pay-to-park lots

Beware of 'pretendants' at pay-to-park lots

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Story Published: Nov 14, 2008 at 7:26 PM PDT

Story Updated: Nov 21, 2008 at 5:45 AM PDT

By Herb Weisbaum

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For months now, we've tracked con artists who work parking lots in downtown Seattle. These guys pretend to be lot attendants. These "pretendants," as they're called, sell bogus tickets for cash.

And how do they buy these tickets? In most cases, with stolen credit cards.

KOMO News cameras were rolling when cops hauled off a pretendant at a parking lot across the street from the Space Needle.

When we arrived on the scene, a guy named Faron was being held down by two employees of the U-Park company who were waiting for the police to show up.

A man named Ken Phillips, Sr. said Faron tried to sell him a parking ticket at a bargain price.

"Half price. Regular price is $20. He offered it to me for $10," he said.

Phillips said he asked Faron if he was an employee of the parking lot.

"And I asked for his ID and he said he didn't have any," he said.

But Phillips already knew that. You see, he owns the lot. And he knew Faron was a pretendant before Faron said a word.

I asked Faron, "How were you buying the tickets you were selling?" Faron had nothing to say.

"My attorney has advised me to say nothing. I plead the fifth," he said.

When the cops arrived, they searched Faron and found five different credit cards with five different names on them, including at least one card belonging to a woman.

Police are checking to find out where the cards came from. Faron was arrested earlier this year for possession of stolen property.

"That's the practice around town -- that fellas are buying tickets with stolen credit cards and then selling them to unsuspecting motorists," said Phillips.

Phillips couldn't tell me how much money he's losing to pretendants working at Seattle parking lots, but he said the problem is growing and people need to know about it.

There's a simple way to keep this from happening. Never buy a parking ticket from someone who walks up to you on a lot. Always, always use the machine to pay.

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