Man Charged $3,400 for 30 Minutes Parking in Tel Aviv

A young musician in Tel Aviv, Nati Bar Cohen, was shocked to find himself presented with a parking fee of 13,040 shekels (approximately $3,400 USD) after leaving his car in a city garage for just 30 minutes. Bar Cohen had parked his vehicle in the garage to meet friends following his debut performance.

Upon attempting to exit the garage, he was confronted with the exorbitant charge on the payment screen. "I said I'll stay here all night, I'm not paying this," Bar Cohen recounted in an interview. He described his attempts to resolve the issue, including calling the police and the municipality, but was bounced between the two agencies.

Ultimately, Bar Cohen devised a workaround to escape the situation. He asked a passerby to enter the garage, and Bar Cohen paid the initial entry fee for the stranger. They then exited the garage together, allowing Bar Cohen to retrieve his car without paying the erroneous astronomical sum.

While Bar Cohen has since made light of the incident, the interviewer, Maayan Adam, expressed that she would have sought compensation had she been in his position, stating, "If I'm dying to get home, exhausted, after a performance and because of this nonsense I'm stuck for an hour in the garage and have to go out and ask people for favors, I want compensation."