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Students pay 30$ extra for usage of the “barnacle” in addition to the fine.

I imagine that's cheaper than paying for the towing fee that's the alternative?

> Mr Dougherty said improvements had since been made to the design of the barnacle, and said 40,000 had been deployed and returned without incident.

Sounds like they make it up in volume. I doubt they'd get a tow truck out there 40000 times.

I would scrape this thing off and park in different lots from then on. All you need is a half of a windshield wiper blade track stuck in to break the seal, and then throw this vulture capitalism cash-grab in the trash bin.

Yep. Looking at the device materials in the photos, it doesn't seem made of super sturdy materials.

With a small chisel + some practice someone could likely clear a cark park - or several streets - full of these within a few hours (overnight), and render the devices unusable until repaired.

Doesn't seem like a well thought out invention. :/

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