When Martena Clinton got an invitation from her friend Gardine Tiggle to attend a speech and dinner hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus, she jumped at the chance. After all, President Barack Obama would be speaking, so she knew it was something she had to see. So, she commuted into Washington D.C. from her home in Randallsville, Maryland, parked her car in a legal handicapped spot, put on her handicapped parking permit, and headed into the dinner. When she emerged from the dinner hours later, her 1994 Lexus was gone. The Secret Service had ordered Martena Clinton’s car moved as a security precaution and couldn’t find it.
The police were also no help. Apparently, while the Secret Service can order cars moved for security reasons, even out of legal parking spots, they don’t keep track of who takes the cars, where they go, or even who was working on the night in question to tow the cars away (they use civilian tow trucks). So when Clinton couldn’t find her car, nobody could actually help her. She had to stay overnight in a DC hotel room, and looked for the car most of the next day. As it turns out, it had been moved within half a block of the convention center, parked illegally in front of a fire hydrant by whoever towed it.
Still, this random moving of cars for no good reason is irritating, even to people it didn’t happen to. “We have been told at least four times that this is an issue they are having with several vehicles,” said Tiggle. “It is their responsibility. They moved it. They tell us, ‘If we find the car‘ — not when we find the car — ‘we will call you. If we cannot find it in 30 days, you should call your insurance company.’ This is totally insane.”
Tags: Martena Clinton, Randallsville, Maryland, Congressional Black Caucus, Barack Obama, Secret Service, Secret Service loses woman’s car, woman’s 1994 Lexus lost by Obama security detail, Washington D.C., Gardine Tiggle, police lose woman’s car, 1994 Lexus
