'AITA for asking my coworker to pay for my parking ticket?' 'I PROTESTED.'

"AITA for asking my coworker to pay for my parking ticket?"

I (23F) work for a company in a pretty big city. I have a coworker (24F) that I sometimes go out to dinner with because we both enjoy going out to restaurants. for context, I moved to this city for this job and my coworker was born and raised here, so she often introduces me to restaurants she enjoys. Yesterday, we made plans to go to a restaurant in downtown.

I was driving us, and as every downtown city is, parking was hard to find. about a block away from the restaurant, there was an area where I could potentially park along the street. There were no signs saying not to park there, however the lack of cars in this particular area made me feel unsure if we were allowed to park here.

I suggested that we try to find a spot further from the restaurant and we would just walk over (both of us are perfectly healthy and able to do the walk over so thats not an issue). My coworker protested, saying it would be fine to park there and nothing would happen and she didn't want to walk far.

I protested, and she kept reminding me that she's from this city and she would know if you couldn't park there. I decided to just park there to avoid an argument. We go to dinner and walk back to my car and low and behold, there is a ticket on my windshield for parking in that zone.

I was upset, and my coworker responded by saying its a bummer that the cops checked to see if people were parked there this time. I got upset and asked her if she knew that you were not supposed to park there. She started stuttering and trying to change the conversation, and knew she was lying.

I confronted her and asked her why she would insist on me parking there when she knew I could get a ticket for it and she admitted that she didn't think anyone would check and see if there was parked there and that she didn't want to do the walk from farther away to the restaurant.

I told her that because she put me in this situation, she needed to pay for the ticket. Now my coworker is upset and saying that it's not fair for me to ask her to pay for the parking ticket. Am I the jerk for insisting she pay?

Here's what people had to say to OP:

Idontknow1973 said:

ESH. While coworker gave you bad advice, you went against what you wanted to do and what you thought was right to avoid an argument. I think the fair resolution is that you both pay half as you were both wrong.

NoGoodName_ said:

ESH. She's an ahole for insisting she knows better, when she obviously doesn't. You are an ahole for being an irresponsible driver; it's YOUR decision where to park your car. As you now clearly see, "but she told me it would be okaaaayyyy" is not a valid reason to do stupid crap with your car. Split the fine 50/50 and call it a learning experience.

meDRAWINGstuff said:

I would say NTA, because she definitely knew and it was shitty of her not to say anything just because she was too lazy to walk...but honestly I think you should probably split it 50/50, since in the end, you were the driver, and it is your responsibility to make the final decision and to take the risk of where you're going to park...

If she didn't want to walk any further, you could have dropped her off there, and then kept looking for a better parking spot that didn't seem so suspicious to you. Guess it depends on how much you like this co-worker, if you want to spend more time with her I would offer the 50/50 solution maybe?

PhilosophyCareless88 said:

NTA. She gambled on no one catching you but she didn't tell you that. It's only fair she pays since that gamble was unsuccessful simply because she didnt want to walk.

FairyCompetent said:

NTA. She won't pay you, so you've paid the cost of the ticket to learn that this person is not a worthwhile friend.

bobhand17123 said:

NTA. It’s just like everything else in life - she traded (saved) time for money. She thought she was going to get off free, but she knew there was a possibility she would have to pay for the convenience.

Tell her she’s lucky you didn’t get towed. She would have had to pay more for her money for time trade off. And storage! If it was late, the trucks still run, but the office people go home. Or the office people go out to dinner, and know not to mess with tow truck drivers.