Nothing gets between this thief and an East Hampton beach parking spot — not even Calvin Klein.
The designer fell victim to a new Hamptons crime last month when his black 2009 Porsche was stripped of the coveted sticker while parked in town.
Permit pilfering and forging have emerged as an unlikely trend this summer, as brazen beachgoers flout the law rather than pay new fees.
A caretaker for Klein’s property in Southampton reported the theft to East Hampton Town cops on July 27.
There have been five instances of forged permits and scattered reports of sticker theft, all stemming from the new $25 fee for an annual pass, said East Hampton Town Police Chief Todd Sarris.
Permits had previously been free and good for life.
The forgers have so far been out-of-towners seeking to avoid the long-standing $325-a-year nonresident fee, which East Hampton Town Clerk Fred Overton called “pretty surprising, [since] we’ve never seen permit forgeries before this year.”
Residents loudly opposed the new law, which has raised some $300,000 for the town’s hollow coffers this summer. Many are simply refusing to pay the fee.
“We knew this might be an issue,” Sarris said, adding that traffic officers have been dispatched to scrutinize each and every car at Atlantic Beach in Amagansett, Ditch Plains in Montauk and at other prime beaches in the area.
Some offenders have been plucked right off the sand, forced to pay $500 in bail, and slapped with a felony count of second-degree possession of a forged instrument — which carries a maximum six-year prison term but is usually dropped to a misdemeanor in court.
Cops look for shady copies of permits or cars parked next to or near each other and bearing the same sticker-ID numbers.
Sarris said some permits were reproduced on quality laser printers and slapped on the vehicles.
Sean McKay, of Darien, Conn., allegedly used Wite-Out to alter his permit’s numbers, while some out-of-towners are ignoring the fee and paying the $100 parking ticket “as the cost of doing business.”