Detroit pizzeria owner fed up with $150 parking tickets, paints handicap zone blue

DETROIT - A Detroit pizzeria owner upset over people getting $150 tickets for unwittingly parking in a handicap zone got a bucket of blue paint and marked the street himself.

Tony Sacco is co-owner of Mootz Pizzeria and Bar. There is a single sign along the curb indicating that parking is reserved for drivers with a handicap tag.

But Sacco says it's confusing because parking enforcers consider the space reserved for as many as four vehicles.

"There is two losers here -- one the person getting a ticket, but how about the person that is a handicapped person that needs that spot?" he said. "I’m not going to try and fight with the city because that’s pretty useless."

For Sacco, the last straw was a $150 ticket given to a woman who was buying ice cream for her kids.

"There was a single mom with her two little babies going to get an ice cream, and she came to a ticket, like what the heck?" he said. "I felt bad so I picked up her ticket. I’ve paid for tickets for my customers."

Sacco says anyone who now parks in the blue zone and gets a ticket deserves it.

There was no immediate comment from the city Wednesday.