Residents of The Penman apartments in southeast Atlanta say they have been booted again and again despite paying for parking, and at least one family says the ordeal delayed their child's trip to the hospital. Elijah Watkins, Victor Mich and Dejuan Gage all told reporters they were hit with boots from Premier Parking Enforcement even after doing everything right — paying through their lease, displaying decals, and holding onto receipts.
Paid Parking, Booted Anyway
The Penman sits along the Atlanta Beltline in southeast Atlanta, and residents there say they've been dealing with the booting company for months, according to FOX 5 Atlanta. Watkins told the station he pays for parking through his lease and even had valid payment receipts in hand, but Premier Parking Enforcement workers booted his car anyway. It was, he said, his third boot of 2026, and he wondered aloud whether it might have simply been a mistake.
Victor Mich says he ran into the same problem, getting booted twice in two weeks despite displaying a paid parking decal on his windshield the entire time. Dejuan Gage said he walked out to find a boot clamped on his car while he was trying to get to his college classes. The station's report notes that dozens of Penman residents have described being victimized by the company for months, and that its reporting drew on interviews with all three men along with video documentation recorded at the apartment complex.
A Child's Medical Care Delayed
For Watkins, the consequences went beyond inconvenience. He said the booting attendant cursed at his family during the confrontation, upsetting his 9-year-old child so much that the boy started crying. At the same time, Watkins said his son needed urgent hospital attention, and the boot on his vehicle meant he and his wife had to scramble — transferring the child's car seat into her vehicle so they could get him to the hospital safely.
Premier Parking Enforcement did not respond to the Penman residents' allegations. The same report notes that the outlet left multiple messages with the company seeking comment but received no reply. On its own website, Premier Parking Enforcement touts $1 million in liability coverage and $1 million in commercial auto coverage, says its agents wear body cameras that record video and audio of every interaction, and advertises a dispatch center staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Not an Isolated Complaint in Atlanta
The Penman dispute lands amid a string of similar complaints across the city. At Buckhead Theatre, drivers who paid for parking through their comedy show tickets came out to find their cars fitted with yellow wheel boots from a different company, Empire Parking Services, according to WSB-TV. Police arrived at the lot, and one Empire employee acknowledged on camera that the drivers had indeed paid, even as the company said the receipts needed verification. The boots eventually came off for free.
At MAA Brookwood Apartments, a TikTok creator named Kristin said she was double-booted after being inside for less than 60 seconds to grab a key card, as reported by Motor1. She said the leasing office and the booting company's own employee ultimately agreed she shouldn't have been booted and removed the boots. Motor1 has described booting as a persistent frustration for Atlanta drivers, one regularly aired in local Reddit threads.
An Industry Scrutinized Statewide
The scale of the practice statewide is significant. An attorney quoted by WABE said private parking-enforcement companies place roughly 100,000 boots across Georgia every year, with about 30 such companies operating statewide. The outlet also reported that a rival outfit known as the Boot Girls charges $50 for boot removal, undercutting the $75-per-day fee that parking-enforcement companies often charge.
For now, the allegations against Premier Parking Enforcement remain unanswered by the company, and it's unclear what recourse residents like Watkins, Mich and Gage have beyond speaking out. What is clear, according to their accounts, is that paying for a parking spot at The Penman hasn't stopped the boots from showing up.
