On Sunday, September 6th my friend and I went to Lenox Square Mall in Atlanta, GA. To have dinner before shopping, we parked over in front of a sushi restaurant (the area beside the Lenox Mall). But the restaurant was close. We decided to get in the Lenox mall and find some place to eat. The parking area was just beside the Lenox mall and the sign of the parking area said Lenox plaza. So we thought it was a part of the complimentary Lenox mall parking and went to the Lenox mall.
After a couple of hours we returned to the car only to find a boot on my car and a sticker on my window, informing me that my car had been impounded. A white car pulled up with one guy inside telling me his company was responsible for the boot. I was told that I needed to pay $50 to have the boot removed and that it was illegal to park at this shopping plaza unless you were going to shop at one of the stores within the plaza. Well I only saw a couple of signs that warns about cars being impounded, but, unless you stop to actually read it -- you would certainly assume its the usual sign warning of illegal parking such as parking there overnight. No one would ever assume they would have to fork over $50 for parking there without patronizing one of the stores.
I don't know if what these clowns are doing is legal or not (I plan to find out by contacting the city of Atlanta) but it is definitely unethical. And I will do everything in my power to make this kind of "muscle-to-make-a-buck" business illegal.