Police have sacked a Pittsburgh man they say netted more than $1,000 Sunday by getting Pittsburgh Steelers fans to pay to park at a North Side lot he doesn’t own.
Alphonso Rattliff, 30, on Sunday charged 23 drivers headed to see the Steelers play at Acrisure Stadium $50 apiece to park in a North Side lot, according a criminal complaint.
The problem, police said: Rattliff doesn’t own the lot on Fulton Avenue.
Rattliff, who lives in the city’s Manchester neighborhood two blocks from the lot, came prepared Sunday, according to police. They said he sported an orange parking-attendant vest and stood near a professionally printed folding sign.
He kept a Terrible Towel tucked in his back pocket and even accepted electronic payments via Apple Pay, the complaint said.
Pittsburgh police estimate he made $1,150.
Police Tuesday charged Ratliff with three misdemeanors — theft by deception, falsely impersonating a privately employed person and defiant trespassing. He was not in custody Thursday afternoon. Police obtained a warrant for his arrest.
Court records did not list Rattliff’s attorney.
Steve Nowak is the branch manager at Safety Sling Co., the rigging equipment business whose six full-time employees park in the lot. He was putting up Christmas lights on his Saxonburg home when he received a call about noon Sunday about Rattliff.
Nowak said he appreciated the quick response from police, whose headquarters is about a block away on Western Avenue.
“We’ve been enjoying our 15 minutes of fame,” said Nowak, 59, as he stood Thursday in front of a wall armed with chunky metal chains, wire rope and synthetic web straps. “But it wasn’t funny at noon on Sunday.”
Nowak said he got word Sunday of Rattliff’s alleged entrepreneurial effort after an employee’s friend tried to park in the lot.
Nowak did not have any of the vehicles towed. He said he didn’t want to penalize drivers who did nothing wrong.
This wasn’t the first time something like this has happened to Safety Sling Co., Nowak said.
Three weeks earlier, someone cut the lock to the lot, which is surrounded by a fence topped with barbed wire.
Nowak responded by installing a heavy-duty alloy chain lock.
But someone Sunday appeared to pull a roughly four-foot-long pole, to which the lock was chained, out of the ground, Nowak said. The pole sat discarded Thursday morning in the parking lot under a dusting of snow.
“Now, we’re going to have to go locking the gates together,” Nowak said.
Rattliff was previously charged with trying to pull the same type of crime in December 2023, according to court records.
He has a March trial date in that case in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court.