Madison Shumway
Staff Writer
Cali Madsen clocked in, picked up her walkie-talkie and portable ticket machine and walked into the winter air.
That day, the ISU ticket writer would patrol upper campus. It was her favorite location, and since she arrived first, she could call dibs.
Bundled up in a warm coat, earbud tucked into one ear, Madsen searched for cars missing hang tags or with invalid hang tags, printing out tickets when she found one.
This was once a normal day for Madsen, who wrote parking tickets for the Department of Public Safety for two years. Madsen, now a senior majoring in graphic design, looks back on her time as a ticket writer fondly.
“I recommend it to people as long as they like walking, and they don’t mind being mean,” she said with a laugh.
During a shift, Madsen would rove about campus, hunting for illegally parked cars and reporting her location to dispatch with the walkie-talkie. Sometimes she’d receive a call to check out a certain vehicle and head to that spot.
For the most part, her job was pretty routine, but some days got exciting.
Occasionally, Public Safety would tow a repeat offender. Other days, she’d encounter a person furious with the ticket she’d left on his or her windshield.
During one incident, the driver of an illegally parked truck launched into a diatribe too inappropriate to repeat, Madsen recalled. She couldn’t help laughing at him, she said.
More often, however, those she ticketed would try to sweet-talk her into changing her mind.
“There’s a lot of people who try to talk you out of giving you a ticket,” Madsen said. “They’re like, ‘Oh, I just have to run in there for like two seconds!’ and I’m like, ‘Two seconds is two seconds. You know you’re not supposed to park here.’”
As compelling as their arguments might be, Madsen wouldn’t budge.
“They would try and bribe you, or be like, ‘Just this once, let me go just this once,’” she said. “I was kind of mean. I didn’t really cut anybody some slack.”
Ticket writers also have to work at the mercy of the weather. Much like the United States Postal Service, neither snow nor rain will prevent ticket writers from completing their rounds.
Winter and summer were miserable times for her as a ticket writer, Madsen said. But she took breaks every hour and occasionally got to work inside the Graveley hall ticket booth.
Fall and spring meant perfect weather and beautiful views, she said. She liked to stop near the Ridge Crest apartments and look out at the scenery.
“It’s really quiet, and it’s peaceful and it’s so serene,” Madsen said. “I would take out my music and sit there for five minutes overlooking the campus and just chilling. It’s a good place to just collect yourself, and relax and take a minute. It’s beautiful up there.”
She found other ways of passing the time during her eight-hour summer and four-hour school-year shifts.
Sometimes she’d count all the white cars on campus or try to find different states on license plates.
Several times, all the ticket writers competed to see who could write the most tickets that week.
“You just have fun. You’re alone, so you’re pretty much your own entertainment,” Madsen said. “You can make a game out of it … Gotta do something to keep your sanity.”
She loved working with her boss and coworkers, she said.
To anyone considering trying the job, she recommended making good Spotify playlists, wearing a good pair of shoes and a backpack and taking water along.
Madsen added that a good ticket writer can’t overlook illegal parking, even when it’s a friend’s car.
“Be a very honest person,” she said. “You just have to be really honest and be willing to do your job, regardless of if it’s going to make somebody upset. Be thick-skinned, too, because of the people you will encounter.”
