WKBK Keene’s Talk Back hosted by Cynthia Georgina and featuring guest host councilor Jim Duffy discussed the recent uptick in the practice of Robin Hooding in the area. Illustrated in the following video is the first two minutes of the segment. A full sixteen minutes was spent on the subject with three callers phoning in their perspective. You can hear all sixteen minutes in a video at Fr33manTVraw (embedded below text).
CG: And, what’s going on with people plugging the meters for other people, have you heard about that?
JD: Oh, yes, I’ve seen it’s back. It was going on a while ago. Robin Hood, they call themselves the Robin Hoods, and what they do is, if they see an expired meter, they’ll plug it, and according to the videos they’ve posted, either with nickels or quarters. A nickel only gets you six minutes, so you know, you still might get a ticket if you’re depending on Robin Hood, if they’re only putting nickels…
CG: And, so what is the purpose of this?
JD: Well, I’m not a spokesperson for the Robin Hood folks, but from what I understand, they believe it’s unfair to charge people to park, or to give them tickets, or to limit their access.
CG: But they want to make sure that the city still gets the money that they make from the parking meters?
JD: Well they don’t want people to get…I think, it’s a good question. I think they don’t want people to get parking tickets, have to pay parking tickets. So they’re plugging the meters to keep people from getting parking tickets.
CG: Ah, I see.
JD: So maybe there’s a method there, because a nickel, if it saves someone from getting a ticket, a ticket’s five bucks, the city would lose… So, I don’t know what their rationale is. But, I think it’s to make the point that they’re not a big fan of parking tickets.
CG: Do the people know that they’re doing this?
JD: Actually, from what I understand, yes. Well, they actually leave cards on the windshields, and I actually saw one video. I went online, and it’s the Free Keene, watched a few of them, and actually, people came up to them and thanked them for doing that.
CG: Really?
JD: Yeah.
CG: I suppose they, I mean I’m probably one of those people that if I plug my meter…
JD: Well, it’s not illegal. It’s not illegal to plug a meter, though there is a two hour limit. And I don’t know how well that’s enforced, you know.
