Those who know me, know how worked up I get when I see spelling mistakes, incorrect grammar and the misuse of apostrophes and commas.
So you can imagine my delight when I heard about a woman who was excused from a parking fine because of a missing comma.
That’s right! A missing comma!
Here’s what happened….
When Ohio woman, Andrea Cammelleri parked her pickup truck for the day, she read the parking sign to make sure she was legally allowed to park there.
The sign said:
“Vehicles not permitted to park here include any motor vehicle camper, trailer, farm implement and/or non-motorized vehicle.”
She looked back at her pickup truck. It was certainly not a trailer. Nor was it a farm implement and she could safely rule it out as a non-motorised vehicle. Whilst not sure exactly what a “motor vehicle camper” was, she was pretty sure it wasn’t a pickup truck.
So she parked her pickup for the day and went on her merry way.
She later returned to discover her truck had been towed and she had been hit with a hefty parking fine.
Ms Cammelleri was quite perplexed and, upon taking it further, discovered the district had failed to add a comma between the words “motor vehicle” and “camper”. The district argued the sign was clear enough and refused to withdraw the fine.
Ms Cammelleri took her case all the way to the District Court where she argued that her truck did not fit the “motor vehicle camper” description. She claimed the fine should not apply because the language prohibits a motor vehicle camper from being parked on the street – not a motor vehicle. Not a camper. And not a pickup truck.
I tend to agree!
It turns out the judge did too and Ms Cammelleri was let off her parking fine.
Whilst it was a huge victory for Ms Cammelleri, I tend to think it was an even bigger one for grammar nerds everywhere.
Grammar Nerds 1 – District of Ohio 0
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