Newsstation KTLA’s Gayle Anderson was on assignment Tuesday morning doing a segment on “Best Road Trip Cars” when an oblivious parking enforcement officer started to write her ticket after ticket — all on live TV.
Set in Santa Monica, Anderson was in the middle of her live segment with an officer starting writing her tickets after tickets for the cars parked along the beach. The officer didn’t seem impressed by neither the cars, cameras or Anderson’s insistence that she had parking receipts in her news van.
The segment shows Anderson receiving a pair of $50 citations and the officer appears to write a third and possible seven more.
Meanwhile, the anchors back in the station’s Hollywood studio seemed bewildered. A guest (Kelley Blue Book representatives) on the show tried to make light of the situation while standing next to one of the expensive vehicles. “We can afford the Porsche, we can afford the ticket.”
**UPDATE (via: smdp)
“The Santa Monica Police Department defended the citations, saying Anderson and her crew did not pay in advance for parking and only paid after the citations were issued. Police said an employee with Central Parking, which monitors the 1550 Beach Lot, called the officers around 7:40 a.m. after his supervisor allegedly approached the news crew and advised them that they needed to pay for parking.
The news crew promised to pay for the spaces before 9 a.m., police said. When the attendant approached the news crew at 8:50 a.m. to pay, they allegedly ignored him.
A traffic officer approached the news crew and asked for proof of purchase. A member of the crew said they had a receipt but did not produce one. Instead the representative walked away and did not come back, police said.”