German authorities are giving parking violators in one city an unexpected break by issuing tickets without fines.
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The tickets, put on carelessly parked cars in Potsdam, include a fine of 0 euros and the cheerful message "Glueck gehabt!!!" (Lucky you!!!). The new approach is designed to admonish motorists without hitting them in the wallet.
"The tickets serve as a warning to parking offenders," said Regina Thielemann, a city of Potsdam spokeswoman. "They're issued when the driver isn't around. So they're given written notice when they'd ordinarily only get a verbal warning."
Potsdam, the state capital of Brandenburg just outside Berlin, earned around 1.2 million euros from parking fines in 2011, she said. Around 120,000 parking fines were issued last year.
In Germany -- a country known for its fondness for obeying rules and punishing offenders -- Potsdam's fine-free tickets have caught the attention of the national media.
One recipient, Kathrin Bach, said her initial reaction to finding a note on her windscreen was one of annoyance -- until she read the message.
"I thought 'Oh no - got another ticket'," she told Germany's Bild newspaper. "I've paid loads of parking fines before because there are so few parking spaces in the area," she added.
Bach's offence -- parking less than five meters away from a road junction -- should have cost her 10 euros, according to the city's parking rules.
德國波茨坦的違章停車者們近日收到意外驚喜，他們收到違章罰單卻無需繳納罰款。
這些罰單被貼在波茨坦的粗心違章?？寇囕v上，包括零元的罰單和“你真幸運(yùn)”的歡快字樣。這種新措施旨在告誡車主，但同時(shí)不收罰金。
波茨坦市的一名女發(fā)言人里吉娜?蒂勒曼說：“這些罰單對違章停車者來說是個(gè)警示，是車主不在時(shí)開具的，因此他們得到了書面警告，而通常只會得到口頭警告。”
波茨坦是勃蘭登堡州的首府，鄰近柏林。里吉娜?蒂勒曼表示，該市去年因停車罰款入賬120萬歐元。去年該市大約開出12萬份違章停車罰單。
德國因注重遵守規(guī)則和懲罰違規(guī)者而著稱。波茨坦的免罰款罰單引起了全國媒體的注意。
收到這種罰單的凱瑟琳?巴赫表示，最初在擋風(fēng)玻璃上發(fā)現(xiàn)罰單時(shí)，她的第一反應(yīng)是懊惱，不過她讀到上面的消息時(shí)就消氣了。
她告訴德國《圖片報(bào)》：“我當(dāng)時(shí)想，‘噢，不，又被罰了?！彼a(bǔ)充說：“我以前付過太多罰單了，因?yàn)檫@附近的停車位特別少?！?/p>
巴赫的車停在距離三岔路口不到五米的地方。根據(jù)該市違章停車條例，她本應(yīng)被罰款10歐元。