San Diego State University will put a yellow Barnacle across your windshield if your car has five or more unpaid parking violations more than 21 days past due. Getting it off, according to the university’s transportation office, costs a $150 immobilization fee, a $300 refundable deposit and every outstanding fine, all due within 48 hours of the device going on or the car may be towed.
The campus is within its rights. California’s Vehicle Code gives that power to police and public parking enforcers on public land, then denies it to everyone else in a single sentence. An apartment manager, a condo association or a private lot operator in California who sticks the same device on a car is doing something the statute reserves for government enforcers, and the state Attorney General’s office concluded in 2004 that a private security firm booting a car in a private lot was tampering with it, a misdemeanor.
What a Barnacle costs a driver at San Diego State
The Barnacle is a folding panel that grips the glass with suction cups. Its maker, Barnacle Parking, says the cups hold with 1,000 pounds of force, that an alarm sounds if the device is tampered with or the car is moved, and that GPS tracks every unit. The driver calls the number on the device or visits the website, pays, and gets a release code.
SDSU’s rules add a clock. The driver has to drop the unit in one of four campus drop boxes within 12 hours of removing it or lose the $300 deposit. Moving an immobilized car, including driving it off campus, brings an immediate tow at the owner’s expense. When windshield damage keeps a Barnacle from sticking, the university uses a conventional wheel boot instead…