Remember Rosco P. Coltrane from Dukes of Hazzard? He used to walk around with a fake fire hydrant writing parking tickets to unsuspecting victims. Now Chicago is starting to look a little more like Hazzard County.

In Chicago, parking meters don't just expire. They can suddenly appear out of nowhere. . .

Motorists who parked downtown on a stretch of Illinois Street last week fell unsuspectingly into a parking-ticket trap. It is a trick Getting Around had not seen before, but one that we are happy to expose and terminate.

Among the drivers scammed was Chicago attorney Vince Tessitore, who at first felt lucky on Tuesday night to find a legal, meterless space to park his Jeep Cherokee on the north side of Illinois just west of LaSalle Street. But when a friend went to the spot to retrieve Tessitore's car about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, a parking meter had been installed where the day before there was no meter.

And a parking ticket was left on the windshield.

The sneaky Loop traffic-control aide (Badge No. 30249) who wrote the parking ticket post-dated the citation as having been issued at 12:39 p.m. Thursday--more than 15 hours after the ticket was placed on the car. . .