It’s one of Chicago’s post-Thanksgiving traditions that is not beloved.
The city’s winter overnight parking ban took effect at 3am Monday, sending tow truck drivers across 107 miles of main streets and drivers in search of their missing cars.
At the auto pound in Humboldt Park, Francisco had to pay $275 to get this white pickup truck back.
He tells WBBM he didn’t notice any signs about the ban when he parked outside a club in the Gold Coast and it took about an hour to track it down.
Getting her car back was not the end of problems for Dentricia Collins.
She says she was at work near Division and California and came out to get her kids to bring them to school when she noticed her car was gone.
While driving it out of the lot on Sacramento near Chicago, she heard a noise that sounded like something fell out of her car and she planned to file a complaint.
The Department of Streets and Sanitation explains the ban as necessary during the winter months.
It “helps ensure public safety each winter by allowing public transportation and emergency vehicles to move freely and reducing hazardous conditions for motorists, pedestrians, and other travelers,” said Commissioner Cole Stallard in a statement.