Photo: Irvine PD on Facebook
Doing donuts in an empty parking lot may be fun, but it is against the law (in one way or another) in every country we can think of. However, if the vehicle does not hit anything, nobody is injured, and nobody is upset; it's no harm, no foul, right? Well, as an unnamed driver from Irvine, California, found out, it does not work that way.
As the Irvine Police Department noted on its Facebook page, a “concerned resident” emailed them with a video of a car that was doing donuts in the Great Park parking lot. Mind you, it is unclear if the person who sent the video filmed it themselves, if someone sent it to them, or if they found it online.
With the video in question sent to the police by someone who did not call the cops when the disturbance was happening, the Irvine PD's traffic detectives, as the post describes them, went to work to identify the driver. That did not take long, as the gray Mazda Miata NA still had its license plate on, so it was all just a matter of tracking down owners of similar vehicles.
Sadly, the police still do not have the Hollywood-style magic capabilities of “enhancing” video footage or photos to increase their level of detail.
So, if you cannot read the license plate in the video below, neither could they, if you ask us. Unless Facebook's video upload feature dramatically dropped the image quality for some reason, but that is a different story.
In less than 48 hours from the anonymous tip from a person that can be described with a word that starts with an "s," and rhymes with "itch," the driver of the Miata was contacted by the police, who visited him at his place of residence.
The “traffic detectives” found "multiple illegal modifications" on the vehicle, and they impounded it. The latter part means that the driver will have to pay even more money, so we are looking at the price of a stock NA Miata if you add the tow, the costs associated with the impound, and a few taxi or ride-hailing fares along the way, on top of the $3,700 fine. Is that too much for doing donuts? Many people think so.
Now, the described traffic detectives went on to the Irvine Public Works department to check the Great Park parking lot, and they determined that the driver in question "caused over $3,700 in damage to the parking lot, and painted parking lot lines." It is not clear how they calculated that amount, but they noted that the parking lot, as well as its lines, were damaged.
We do not know how many gallons of paint you need to draw white lines in a parking lot, not to mention labor, brushes, and all that is needed in between, but that sounds like a steep price to us. A gallon of white paint costs as little as $20, and if you splurge, it may cost up to $55 a gallon or so.
Regardless of that, the citizen will have to pay for the damage, even though it is not clear if it was caused just by his Miata on that particular day. As you might imagine, the people of the internet had a field day in the comments section, which you can read for yourself below.
We took a few screen-grabs of the whole thing while concealing the identity of commenters, just to be sure this "excellent example of the importance of community partnership" will remain on the internet going forward.
With that being written, do not do donuts in parking lots, as you may get in trouble. It's not worth it.
With the video in question sent to the police by someone who did not call the cops when the disturbance was happening, the Irvine PD's traffic detectives, as the post describes them, went to work to identify the driver. That did not take long, as the gray Mazda Miata NA still had its license plate on, so it was all just a matter of tracking down owners of similar vehicles.
Sadly, the police still do not have the Hollywood-style magic capabilities of “enhancing” video footage or photos to increase their level of detail.
So, if you cannot read the license plate in the video below, neither could they, if you ask us. Unless Facebook's video upload feature dramatically dropped the image quality for some reason, but that is a different story.
In less than 48 hours from the anonymous tip from a person that can be described with a word that starts with an "s," and rhymes with "itch," the driver of the Miata was contacted by the police, who visited him at his place of residence.
The “traffic detectives” found "multiple illegal modifications" on the vehicle, and they impounded it. The latter part means that the driver will have to pay even more money, so we are looking at the price of a stock NA Miata if you add the tow, the costs associated with the impound, and a few taxi or ride-hailing fares along the way, on top of the $3,700 fine. Is that too much for doing donuts? Many people think so.
Now, the described traffic detectives went on to the Irvine Public Works department to check the Great Park parking lot, and they determined that the driver in question "caused over $3,700 in damage to the parking lot, and painted parking lot lines." It is not clear how they calculated that amount, but they noted that the parking lot, as well as its lines, were damaged.
We do not know how many gallons of paint you need to draw white lines in a parking lot, not to mention labor, brushes, and all that is needed in between, but that sounds like a steep price to us. A gallon of white paint costs as little as $20, and if you splurge, it may cost up to $55 a gallon or so.
Regardless of that, the citizen will have to pay for the damage, even though it is not clear if it was caused just by his Miata on that particular day. As you might imagine, the people of the internet had a field day in the comments section, which you can read for yourself below.
We took a few screen-grabs of the whole thing while concealing the identity of commenters, just to be sure this "excellent example of the importance of community partnership" will remain on the internet going forward.
With that being written, do not do donuts in parking lots, as you may get in trouble. It's not worth it.
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