ODDLY ENOUGH

ODDLY ENOUGH

Boston woman pays $560K for 2 parking spots near home

BOSTON

Parking is such a precious commodity in Boston that one woman was willing to pay $560,000 for two off-street spaces near her home.

Lisa Blumenthal won the spots in the city’s Back Bay neighborhood during an on-site auction Thursday that took place in a steady rain by the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS had seized the spots from a man who owed back taxes.

Blumenthal, who lives in a multimillion-dollar home near the parking spaces, told The Boston Globe she didn’t expect the bidding to go so high for the spots she says will come in handy for guests and workers.

The record for a single spot in Boston is $300,000.

The median price of a single-family home in Massachusetts is $313,000.

Lawsuit: Man allowed to curse on NY ticket payment

LIBERTY, N.Y.

A 22-year-old Connecticut man who wrote obscenities and “Tyranny” on his speeding ticket payment claims in a federal lawsuit that his free speech rights were violated when he was arrested.

William Barboza is suing two police officers in the Catskills-area village of Liberty over the arrest.

Barboza had replaced the word “Liberty” with “Tyranny” and added an obscenity-laced insult on the payment form accompanying an August 2012 ticket.

The lawsuit filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union says the Fairfield County man was ordered to town court, where he was handcuffed and arrested for aggravated harassment. He posted $200 bail that day. The charge was dismissed in March.

The NYCLU argues that offensive language is protected speech.

NJ Transit probes bizarre bus trip into New York

NEWARK, N.J.

Some New Jersey bus commuters apparently have gotten an unexpected tour of the New York metro area they’d rather forget.

New Jersey Transit is investigating why a trip that normally takes about 45 minutes took nearly two hours more Thursday when the driver took a circuitous route into Manhattan’s Port Authority bus terminal.

A passenger on the ill-fated trip told Newark’s Star-Ledger newspaper the driver seemed lost and passed the Secaucus train station several times, drove past outlet stores and eventually crossed the George Washington Bridge. Normally, the bus would go through the Lincoln Tunnel, several miles south.

Aileen Iosso tells the newspaper when passengers asked to be let off after the driver passed the bus terminal, the driver yelled at them.

Associated Press