Parking machine calls French mayor a b**tard
Oliver Gee - [email protected]
Published: 4 Jun, 2015 CET.
Updated: Thu 4 Jun 2015 16:27 CET
A scandal-hit French politician has launched a complaint after a parking machine in the town where is mayor issued around 500 tickets that called him a "thieving b**tard". Police are investigating.
French politicians are used to insults... but not from parking ticket machines
But that's exactly what happened to Jean-François Copé the scandal-hit mayor of the town of Meaux.
The politician, who is the former head of the newly-named French opposition party Les Republicains, quit the party last May after shocking revelations emerged over a funding scandal for Nicolas Sarkozy's failed 2012 election campaign.
But Copé is still in a position of power as mayor of the town to the north east of Paris, and it seems the local parking machines still bear a grudge against him - or at least someone who knows how they work.
Indeed, an estimated 500 tickets were issued to drivers bearing the usual date and time of arrival at the car park, along with an extra message at the bottom that read: "Copé is a bastard, thieving mayor" (see pic below).
Le voilà le ticket de parking insultant de Meaux ! #SoulèvementDesMachines (Reconnaissance éternelle à @Bndct) pic.twitter.com/6WVZibQlGs
— Benoît Gallerey (@bengallerey) June 4, 2015
Copé has now lodged a formal legal complaint concerning the machine in question to authorities.
But surely it's not an opinionated computer spitting out the offensive tickets - so who's responsible?
One employee of the ticketing company told French newspaper Le Parisien that it must have been a fellow member of staff - as accessing the system required a log in, username, and a password.
Authorities, however, haven't ruled out that a hacker could be behind the attack and have launched an investigation.
In the tweet below, Copé found time to joke about the incident, praising the work of the local townsfolk, depite the fact that the town has "offensive" parking ticket machines.
À Meaux, il y a des horodateurs injurieux mais surtout des actions formidables au service des meldois. #visiteANRU pic.twitter.com/S2uGyyWgIE
— Jean-François Copé (@jf_cope) June 4, 2015
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French politicians are used to insults... but not from parking ticket machines
But that's exactly what happened to Jean-François Copé the scandal-hit mayor of the town of Meaux.
The politician, who is the former head of the newly-named French opposition party Les Republicains, quit the party last May after shocking revelations emerged over a funding scandal for Nicolas Sarkozy's failed 2012 election campaign.
But Copé is still in a position of power as mayor of the town to the north east of Paris, and it seems the local parking machines still bear a grudge against him - or at least someone who knows how they work.
Indeed, an estimated 500 tickets were issued to drivers bearing the usual date and time of arrival at the car park, along with an extra message at the bottom that read: "Copé is a bastard, thieving mayor" (see pic below).
Le voilà le ticket de parking insultant de Meaux ! #SoulèvementDesMachines (Reconnaissance éternelle à @Bndct) pic.twitter.com/6WVZibQlGs
— Benoît Gallerey (@bengallerey) June 4, 2015
Copé has now lodged a formal legal complaint concerning the machine in question to authorities.
But surely it's not an opinionated computer spitting out the offensive tickets - so who's responsible?
One employee of the ticketing company told French newspaper Le Parisien that it must have been a fellow member of staff - as accessing the system required a log in, username, and a password.
Authorities, however, haven't ruled out that a hacker could be behind the attack and have launched an investigation.
In the tweet below, Copé found time to joke about the incident, praising the work of the local townsfolk, depite the fact that the town has "offensive" parking ticket machines.
À Meaux, il y a des horodateurs injurieux mais surtout des actions formidables au service des meldois. #visiteANRU pic.twitter.com/S2uGyyWgIE
— Jean-François Copé (@jf_cope) June 4, 2015
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