please help: 1st ever parking tickets-2 citations $230-close to fire hydrant in NYC

[focus_goal]

What is the name of your state?CT,but parking ticket of NYC

Please help as this is our first parking ticket(s) of $115 each, in 2 years,since we have come to US.
We went to NYC today to visit our friends and parked at the end of the of block-we were close to fire hydrant but for sure nowhere nearer than 12'-14'(we were even away from some white marking which said 9FT-dont know for what it was for)
Have always been very careful of fire hydrants even in as small and crowded town as at New Haven,CT which is a parking nightmare because of Yale.
We got back to our car only to find two parking tickets on different side of windshield by different officers:
One at 7:19AM :it says 5FT from the hydrant.The only thing that i found missing on this ticket is that EXP. DATE is mentioned as N/S.while our rear plate clearly shows it as May 2006(and for out of the state car ,Month/yaer has to be shown)
Second one at 10:04AM:It says 4 FT from the hydrant.Again,the exp date is stated as NS.

I am contesting these tickets on two grounds.Please Please help with your thoughts.I will really appreciate your feedback and help.

1. How can the same car be at two different distances from the hydrant in less than 3 hrs?the officers did not bother to check the distance properly-they HAD to just issue a tkt.
2. the EXP date on the licence plate stated as "NS" when clearly mentioned on the rear one:is this sufficient to prove that the officers did not even bother to look properly at the car/position of the car before issuing the tkt?

Am just going to start my student life this week and this is a bad start for me

Will look forward to your guidance.
Thanks!

 

[freespeech]

Sounds like they were within a foot of each others estimate on the distance and clearly no where near your estimate. Question how would you like to be the owner of a home that needed to be protected by that hydrant?

Or you can go out measure the distance show where you were parked etc. etc. etc. and go to court and fight it.

Good luck with school

 

[BassMasterMcfly]

Your second grounds is a no-winner. You can try it (hey, why not? ... well, I've tried that in the past too ... and lost), but as long as the plate, make and model are right, that's usually enough. Sometimes color will get you off - if your car is clearly red and the officer wrote "blue", but usually color isn't enough either. Generally, they don't have to do a lot - again plate number, make and model are generally enough.

As far as the distance, it's really your word against theirs. You do have some support in that they did different estimates (one says 4 one says 5) but they're pretty close - it's not like one said 10 and the other said 2.

If your car were still there, you'd want to take a tape measure and measure the distance and take a photograph, but again, it's your word against theirs, and the judge may believe that you moved the car.

Still, I always recommend going to fight the ticket if you have the time. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

 

[focus_goal]

Thanks- you are right...

I agree- 4Ft and 5Ft are not much of a difference and our estimate of 12Ft might not appear be a great estimate that way.CT has a limit of 10Ft and maybe we are used to that rule .
I will contest both and hope that atleast one gets waived off.A $115 lesson might be good to remember,$230 pinches!!! And after reading some experiences here, I am thanking my stars that the car was not towed away...have to contest this on line so will have to wait and bear the brunt!Thanks once again for your thoughts.