Thieves target downtown parking meters

06:24 PM CST on Thursday, December 9, 2004

By Amy Tortolani / 11 News

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HOUSTON -- Free parking places are popping up all over downtown Houston. Someone has been stealing parking meters and that's taking a bite out of an already tight city budget.

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City mechanics are repairing as many of the meters as possible.

"They've been hitting the meters," said Jorge Chacon, a parking meter mechanic.

Friday morning, police found another eight missing meters. Over the last three months, 70 have been stolen from Houston streets.

Each meter costs $200 to replace bringing the total cost to taxpayers to $14,000. And that doesn't factor in labor cost or revenue lost when parkers don't pay the piper.

The thieves probably don't get much money out of the meters.

"They destroy the meters for 75 cents or 50 cents," said Capt. Dwayne Ready. "This is a big problem."

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Undercover agents say it's not easy to steal the meters. Each meter and pole weigh about 75 pounds. In some cases, the the bad guys even pulled out the concrete with the meter adding another 20 pounds.

Police say while time has yet to expire for the thieves, they hope it runs out soon.