Oscar Mayer's Wienermobile Ticketed For Illegal Parking

CHICAGO (AP) _ Not even a giant hot dog can escape the long arm of the law. <br/><br/>One of the Oscar Mayer Wienermobiles, a fiberglass behemoth on a national promotional tour, was discovered parked illegally

Friday, August 10th 2007, 3:24 pm

By: News On 6

CHICAGO (AP) _ Not even a giant hot dog can escape the long arm of the law.

One of the Oscar Mayer Wienermobiles, a fiberglass behemoth on a national promotional tour, was discovered parked illegally _ hazard lights blinking _ on a major downtown street.

The violation in a no-parking zone on ritzy Michigan Avenue earned the driver of the 27-foot sausage a $50 ticket.

``The situation was resolved without the use of ketchup, which in Chicago is a big thing,'' said Matt Smith of the city's Streets and Sanitation Department.

The officer who issued the ticket had already called a tow truck when the driver showed up to claim his fiberglass wiener-on-wheels. ``We have access to tow trucks that could have handled a Polish sausage, not just a hot dog,'' Smith said.

Sydney Lindner, a spokeswoman for Oscar Mayer parent company Kraft Foods Inc., said the Wienermobile, one of several, is traveling the country promoting a contest to sing the Oscar Mayer jingle in a commercial.

She said illegal parking is against company policy, ``even if you're driving a company vehicle that's shaped like a giant hot dog.''

It's not the first time a Wienermobile has tangled with the law.

An Arizona Highway Patrol officer in June found a Wienermobile parked in a Tucson construction zone and ran its ``YUMMY'' license plate to make sure it was street legal. The plate came back as stolen, but it was just a mix-up with a similar plate that had been stolen from another of the giant hot dogs in Missouri.