City workers paint handicapped sign around car, tow it away

It's the type of scene you might expect to see on Just for Laughs: Gags with angry Quebec residents yelling at a parking enforcement officer while pranksters laugh behind a hidden camera.

But a debacle that ensued in Israel this week after city staff painted a handicapped sign around a woman's car and then ticketed her for a parking violation was no joke. Anyway, it stopped being funny when they towed the car and charged her for that, too.

Security footage of the incident is circulating the web after the car owner, named Hila Ben-Baruch, tracked down and uploaded the video, according to the Times of Israel.

The footage shows a city staffer walking up behind the car and painting a handicapped sign. Shortly afterward, a tow truck arrives and carries away the car.

Neat trick, but Ben-Baruch was not impressed when she received a bill for about $365 for the ticket and towing fee, according to the story. She found the video and uploaded it to her Facebook page where users shared it widely. Before long, her story received international media attention and the deputy mayor of Tel Aviv was apologizing.

He said the incident was due to a miscommunication. City workers change parking spots to handicapped all the time but they are supposed to tell the parking inspectors' office not to charge the unsuspecting driver who is already parked in that spot.

No, this wasn't Just for Laughs, because there's no team of smiling tricksters behind this magic trick. And the final edit doesn't have a laugh track, either.