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The city of Keene, New Hampshire, is suing a group of do-gooders for allegedly topping off parking meters of strangers.

The group, which calls itself "Robin Hood and his Merry Men," likes to leave notes on the windshields of cars that are in danger of getting a ticket due to an expired meter, according to the Union Leader.

A note reads, "Your meter expired; however, we saved you from the king?s tariffs, Robin Hood and his Merry Men. Please consider paying it forward.? The note then lists an address where people can send donations if they wish.

According to the Union Leader, the city claims Robin Hood and his Merry Men have "intentionally taunted, interfered with, harassed and intimidated" the city's three parking enforcement officers. The suit also alleges that the group follows the parking enforcement officers around the city and uses video and radio equipment to coordinate their efforts.

All told, six citizens are named in the city's lawsuit. One of the defendants, James Cleaveland, spoke to the Union Leader about it. "They say video recording or talking to them is harassing them, but I don't agree with that," he said. "So they want to establish a safety zone of fifty feet."

The lawsuit, according to the Union Leader, lists a bit of trash-talking on the part of the Robin Hooders.

In the filing, parking enforcement officer Linda Desruisseaux said, "Besides following me, crowding around me, making video recordings of my activities, and placing coins in expired meters to prevent me from writing tickets, these individuals repeatedly taunt and harass me, asking why I am stealing peoples' money and telling me to get another job ... In particular, Graham Colson likes to taunt me by saying, 'Linda, guess what you're not going to do today - write tickets.' ... The taunting and harassment tends to get worse when there is a group, as they try to one-up each other at my expense.

Another parking enforcement officer claims that he suffers from heart palpitations, stress and anxiety, and "dreams related to this activity."

The city is concerned that the parking enforcement officers will quit, according to the Union Leader. That would cause a financial hardship, because the city would have to hire and train new officers, the suit claims.

Members of the group were issued the lawsuit last week and have 30 days to respond.

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I don't agree with the harassment of the officers, although I have no respect for these people, but I find the idea of helping out people who's meter has ran out a great idea, hopefully those saved by them send them a little bit of money so they can keep doing this. Or if you see a meter that is about to run out, you put a little bit of money in.

The idea is really cool, the harassment is what got them the lawsuit I guess.

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Harassment, right... The city is just ****ed about losing all of the ticket money so they're cooking up this story

Somehow I find it more likely that these folks expressed contempt towards the parking enforcement officers and the lawsuit is just to address that. Don't you figure that if the city needs more money, they'd find it easier and more effective all around to just bump the rates of all meters?

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I don't agree with the harassment of the officers, although I have no respect for these people, but I find the idea of helping out people who's meter has ran out a great idea, hopefully those saved by them send them a little bit of money so they can keep doing this. Or if you see a meter that is about to run out, you put a little bit of money in.

The idea is really cool, the harassment is what got them the lawsuit I guess.

While topping off meters is a good thing to do, following them around , harassing them and all that, not so much.

I don't see why you wouldn't have any respect for the meter maids though. without them you would NEVER find any parking, the city would need higher taxes to compensate for the lack of income from the meters and half of the idiots would double park making your parking situation even worse.

As much as I hate paying for parking in this small town, I'd hate if we didn't have paid parking especially with all the tourists we get, just the locals would make it impossible to find short term parking, we already have a big enough problem with parking

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Somehow I find it more likely that these folks expressed contempt towards the parking enforcement officers and the lawsuit is just to address that.

Exactly that. They can't stop someone from paying someone else's ticket, but the verbal abuse is too far.

Such a shame, given the good deed that they are trying to perform.

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Harassment, right... The city is just ****ed about losing all of the ticket money so they're cooking up this story

^^ This! And good on the RH's. Don't like the yelling though.

And the Supreme Court has already ruled on the videotaping issue - it's allowed.

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Actually feeding someone elses meter that has run out is against local by-laws in the UK [f you get caught] and as for the intimidation it is an act gone too far.Personally I think both sides need their heads knocking together as it would seem the council are acting childishly too.

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Actually feeding someone elses meter that has run out is against local by-laws in the UK [f you get caught] and as for the intimidation it is an act gone too far.Personally I think both sides need their heads knocking together as it would seem the council are acting childishly too.

How is this enforced? I can send anyone to top up the meter on my behalf how is that illegal and enforceable?

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Parkers are meant to leave the parking area before the paid period expires topping up the meter is also against by-laws.How is it enforced I guess much like any by-law its if you get caught doing it.

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Actually feeding someone elses meter that has run out is against local by-laws in the UK [f you get caught] and as for the intimidation it is an act gone too far.Personally I think both sides need their heads knocking together as it would seem the council are acting childishly too.

We don't have such meters in the UK, you buy a ticket and display it in your dashboard, these meters are next to a set of so many spaces and can be topped up by anyone that parks there for all those spaces, no comparison can be made.

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Parkers are meant to leave the parking area before the paid period expires topping up the meter is also against by-laws.How is it enforced I guess much like any by-law its if you get caught doing it.

I've never used a parking meter so can only assume, if its illegal to top up why have the option to do it? Or do you wait till your time has run out then add more coins? Can't see why you couldn't pay more money to stay longer in the space. With regards to this story only issue I can see is the intimidation the group showed the parking attendant.

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We don't have such meters in the UK, you buy a ticket and display it in your dashboard, these meters are next to a set of so many spaces and can be topped up by anyone that parks there for all those spaces, no comparison can be made.

Yes we do. Nowhere near as many as there used to be as they're being changed over to the ticket system, but they ARE still in use in some areas.

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Not viable around here - hoods would just saw 'em off & steal the meters for the change inside.

If they're anything like the ones here, the change isn't in the meter itself, it's in a secure lockbox in the ground underneath it.

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Title is misleading. They are not being sued for making payments. They are being sued for harassing officers. harassing anyone is not legal so the city has every right to sue. It happens to be illegal in the US to pay officers based on the number of tickets they write so we know the officers don't give a damn about that. There isn't some conspiracy going on here. The city isn't trying to rob its citizens. In a city that small, est pop 23.4k, the city can't rob it's citizens using parking meters. City council wouldn't have its posts very long since people would just vote them out if they felt the tickets were unjust. This lawsuit really is about the harassment aspect and nothing else.

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While topping off meters is a good thing to do, following them around , harassing them and all that, not so much.

I don't see why you wouldn't have any respect for the meter maids though. without them you would NEVER find any parking, the city would need higher taxes to compensate for the lack of income from the meters and half of the idiots would double park making your parking situation even worse.

As much as I hate paying for parking in this small town, I'd hate if we didn't have paid parking especially with all the tourists we get, just the locals would make it impossible to find short term parking, we already have a big enough problem with parking

This job used to be a part of the police job in my country. Now they have special firms that just go around for this purpose and sadly enough these people are just really arrogant ######.

They enjoy writing the tickets and they are just plain arrogant against the people they write a ticket for. That's why I really have no respect for those people.

Like I stated in my original post, I don't agree with the harassment, but the general idea I find really cool.

Now after reading some of the posts, I remember that in my home country (I moved away from there over 7 years ago) most of these meters are replaced by single ticket machines that spew out a ticket that you have to put behind your front window, so this Robin Hood idea would sadly enough only work in a few places.

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I am surprised we have not moved from coins in a machine, to swiping our bank cards.

This would eliminate the no-change excuse.

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I am surprised we have not moved from coins in a machine, to swiping our bank cards.

This would eliminate the no-change excuse.

The rest of the world has, including mobile payments.

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