COLUMBUS, Ohio -- On one side of the street it's the first and third Thursdays of the month from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m.
On the other side of the same street, it's first and third Fridays.
On another street, it's the first Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
It happens in Victorian Village, the campus area, Harrison West, Italian Village, German Village and several other Columbus neighborhoods.
It's street cleaning. And if you don't read the signs carefully, you may not know when your street is due for cleaning... or when the city will tow your car to get it out of the way.
"I've seen people come out in their jammies and nighties," says Victorian Village resident Rick Braveheart. "It's a little sign. So, I think people could just miss it."
People like Colleen Lillie. Her car was towed from a campus-area street shortly after she moved into the house, even though her mom had warned her about street-sweeping days.
"I called my mom and was like, 'I think I got towed,' and she was really, really mad," Colleen confesses. "It's really terrible. You have to go in to this really scary part of town and get your car and then pay
a lot of money."
But a couple of then-OSU student entrepreneurs came to the rescue.
When Vitaliy Levit and Yury Tsukerman noticed that many of their friends' cars were being towed, they created an automatic, online reminder system called AntiTow.com. The site sends text messages to users' phones the night before cleaning happens in their neighborhood so they have time to move their cars and avoid being towed. The AntiTow.com service is free but your carrier's standard text-messaging rates still apply.
After a few media mentions, the web site took off. Hundreds of people signed up and it expanded into areas farther from campus. Now, it's ready to expand even more.
"We're actually going to be launching in the City of Chicago, hopefully, by the end of the month," Levit says.
He says the site will continue to be a free service thanks to the pair's other business, RecessMobile.com, which provides other revenue
streams.
"It would be $200 worth of helpful!" says Colleen. She's ready to sign up asap.
For additional information, stay with nbc4i.com and NBC 4 and refresh nbc4i.com -- Where Accuracy Matters.
To submit a story idea or news tip, e-mail us at stories@nbc4i.com.
NBC 4 POLITICS: Headlines, Interactives & Video
MORE: NBC 4 Local News | Local Crime News
NBC 4 SPORTS: Sports News, Video
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement