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Wienermobile ticketed for illegal parking

Associated Press
Vail, CO Colorado
AP Photo/Chicago Tribune, Kevin PangA Chicago police officer tickets the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile in front of Tribune Tower on Thursday in Chicago. The vehicle was ticketed for illegal parking on Michigan Aveune. The vehicle was later seen driving north on Michigan.
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CHICAGO ” Not even a giant hot dog can escape the long arm of the law.

One of the Oscar Mayer Wienermobiles, a fiberglass behemoth on a national promotional tour, was discovered parked illegally ” hazard lights blinking ” on a major downtown street.

The violation in a no-parking zone on ritzy Michigan Avenue earned the driver of the 27-foot sausage a $50 ticket.



“The situation was resolved without the use of ketchup, which in Chicago is a big thing,” said Matt Smith of the city’s Streets and Sanitation Department.

The officer who issued the ticket had already called a tow truck when the driver showed up to claim his fiberglass wiener-on-wheels. “We have access to tow trucks that could have handled a Polish sausage, not just a hot dog,” Smith said.

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Sydney Lindner, a spokeswoman for Oscar Mayer parent company Kraft Foods Inc., said the Wienermobile, one of several, is traveling the country promoting a contest to sing the Oscar Mayer jingle in a commercial.

She said illegal parking is against company policy, “even if you’re driving a company vehicle that’s shaped like a giant hot dog.”

It’s not the first time a Wienermobile has tangled with the law.

An Arizona Highway Patrol officer in June found a Wienermobile parked in a Tucson construction zone and ran its “YUMMY” license plate to make sure it was street legal. The plate came back as stolen, but it was just a mix-up with a similar plate that had been stolen from another of the giant hot dogs in Missouri.


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