Merry Christmas, San Jose!

Did you know that if you lose your parking ticket in the free parking structure in San Jose, you have to pay $15 to get out? The ticket machines won't issue another ticket unless there's a car on the sensors, and if you take a ticket when a car is there, the gate will remain open until a car goes through. Basically, there's a computer that keeps track: 1 car = 1 ticket. The staff working there said that there was nothing they could do about it, since all ticket machines are owned and operated by the city. So if you want to get out, you have to bite the bullet and pay $15 for a lost ticket.

I found all this out the hard way. On Friday, a few of us went to go check out Christmas in the Park, and Alex lost his ticket. The funny thing is that I went back to San Jose the very next day to visit the Tech Museum, and there, Bob loses his ticket. The strange thing with Bob's case was that he had the ticket when we got back to the car. He dropped it, though, as he entered the car, but quickly found it again under his seat. He picked it up, and put it on the island between the 2 front seats. When we drove to the exit gate, the ticket was gone, nowhere to be found...and we searched everywhere. In the end, Bob also had to buy a lost ticket. So there you go, San Jose, a $30 gift from CTCC! Merry Christmas!