Every car owner in New York knows that parking on the street is almost more trouble than it’s worth, but drivers who manage to decode the forbidding signs can usually be confident that they’re within the law. So when residents of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, found a sea of all-too-recognizable orange rectangles blanketing their windshields a couple of weeks ago, they had the predictable response: “There were flames coming out of my ears,” says Krista Gaskin. “I’ve already spent $1,000 on parking fines this year!” But the “tickets,” it turns out, were no Giuliani crackdown – they were uniquely attention-getting promotional flyers for Island Heat, a new tanning salon, advertising a ten-tans-for-$10 special on the reverse side. Neighbors fumed that the design hoax had to be illegal, but a spokesperson for the New York City Department of Finance says no laws were broken. Crime or not, some, apparently, still thought punishment was in order: “We got death threats,” says salon employee Teresa Catani. “People just couldn’t take a joke.”