It only took 10 days, but a La Crosse coffee shop owner and his customers finally got the illegally parked car out of the two-hour parking space in front of his business.

The red car first appeared in the spot on a Saturday. By last Wednesday it was still there, so shop owner Todd Ondell went to talk to the police. Five days later it still had not moved, as the coffee-shop regulars duly noted each day.

By then, there were numerous green parking tickets under one windshield wiper blade. Someone had stuck a cardboard sign under the other one reading "take me please."

Yesterday morning, one of Ondell's customers taped a page from a wall calendar on the passenger window with a black "x" marking each day the car had been there.

But Ondell had kept the pressure on police to get the car out, and it finally worked.

Late yesterday morning, a man in a stocking cap walked up, scooped up the tickets, got in the car and drove away. Now some customers say they sort of miss the red car.