Meter maid beaten for 'lousy' $15 ticket

For a $15 ticket, police said, a young Yeadon couple "pummeled" Upper Darby meter maid Kalliopi Maroulis - punching her head and causing her to break her wrist - before speeding away with her ticket book.

Maroulis, 46, said she took the meter-maid job in December because she loves to walk. But after being beaten on the job Saturday, she said she's quitting.

"I want to walk but I don't want to die," she said. "I won't go back."

Maroulis said she approached an illegally parked Dodge Charger behind the Wachovia Bank on Ludlow Street about noon Saturday and asked the occupant, identified by police as Ashley Dacons, 20, to move her car.

When Dacons refused, Maroulis said she began to write a ticket. That's when, Maroulis said, Dacons opened her car door, striking her, and then punched her in the face.

Maroulis said she fought back. When Dacons' boyfriend, identified by police as Dijon Prince, 22, came out of the bank, Maroulis said, he tried to separate her and Dacons but could not.

According to Maroulis, Dacons began egging Prince to punch Maroulis in the head.

"He didn't want to but he started hitting me," she said. "I start to feel dizzy, so I let her go."

Maroulis said she fell to the ground, breaking her wrist and the car's rearview mirror in the fall. This prompted Dacons to confront her once again, she said.

"Another guy came up and pulled me away so she could leave," Maroulis said.

The couple took Maroulis' ticket book and left the scene in their vehicle, but they were arrested a short time later along 69th Street, said Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood.

On her way to Delaware County Memorial Hospital, Maroulis was taken to the arrest scene, where she identified her alleged attackers, Chitwood said.

"It's a sad commentary on society when somebody is doing their job, whether they're making hamburgers or writing tickets, and it results in a beating, a broken wrist and jail," Chitwood said. "All over a lousy parking ticket."

Prince and Dacons are being held at the Delaware County Prison. His bail has been set at $50,000 and hers has been set at $10,000 Chitwood said.

Maroulis said it's not the first time she has been assaulted in her seven months as a meter maid, but it was the worst.

The grandmother of three emigrated from Greece 21 years ago with her husband, two kids and a sick mother, she said.

"So I come here. I'm working hard. I tried to grow my kids very good to learn to respect people," she said. "And the people that are born here, that have all the opportunity to be something, they destroy their lives for nothing."

Prince and Dacons were charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, harassment and criminal mischief. *