Man parks for free in UK town centre thanks to 'genius hack' - but it's not what it seems
A "genius" hack to park for free has gone viral after a man claimed he had found a way to trick the parking ticket machine - but it turned out the trick is not all that it seems.
A man claims to have worked out a "genius" hack that tricks ticket machines into giving out free parking.
In a viral video filmed in Sheffield, South Yorks, a man shows how by doing two simple actions the machine overrides itself and issues a valid ticket without taking any payment.
The hack involved pressing the red button on the machine while at the same time repeatedly pressing the green button. The display on the pass vending device then shows the message: "Ticket printing in process."
Bizarrely despite not receiving any cash the machine issued a ticket valid for more than 24 hours, from 7.20pm until 8.20am - or so it seems.
A journalist from YorkshireLive decided the test method after the video went viral, however, the publication has not revealed the area of Sheffield where the ticket hack was carried out.
Writing for the publication they said: "As the men did in the original video I pressed the red button once, before proceeding to press the green button as many times as possible, secretly hoping no one would catch me and question what on earth I was doing.
"To my surprise, after a handful of quick presses, the machine displayed the message that a ticket was printing.
"I was left stunned. The social media hack had worked after all. The printed ticket stated that I had 20 minutes of parking, with the free parking period starting at 12.30pm and ending at 12.50pm."
However, the journalist revealed the free parking she was given was actually a standard for the city centre where motorists are given 20 minutes gratis as standard.
The work of the reporter also revealed parking charging times start from 8am and in most zones and end at 6.30pm.
So it would appear the "hack" as it was framed in the viral video was just showing the free parking allowance for the next day, from 8am until 8.20am.
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Councillor Joe Otten, Chair of Waste and Street Scene policy committee at Sheffield City Council, confirmed the 'hack' was not all it seemed.
He said: "All our pay and display machines outside of the city centre, apart from our city parks, provide 20 minutes of free parking within charging periods.
"When a charging period has ended and a customer presses the green button, they get 20 minutes free for when the charging period starts again, which in this case was the next day. There wasn’t an error or a hack and the machine has been and is working perfectly."
