HOUSTON -- A new state law intended to crack down on one type of parking problem is leading to other parking hassles, Local 2 Investigates reported Thursday.

Parking citation books handed out by the City of Houston are allowing security guards and everyday citizens to cause major inconvenience and frustration, leading some people to pay fines that they are not legally required to pay.

They are the same ticket forms that are issued to police and parking meter attendants throughout the city.

Colette Clift-Mayers of west Houston found out the hard way when she said a private security guard rudely informed her he was writing her a ticket.

She said she was parked legally in a private lot with a storeowner's permission when she was ticketed with an official Houston Municipal Court parking citation.

She said the man seemed power-hungry, able to hand out the same tickets being issued by police officers and parking meter attendants throughout Houston. The security guard routinely wears commando boots and drives a car that looks similar to a police cruiser.

"I believe that he sits in the parking lot and contrives to write tickets," she said. "I think that that is his whole purpose throughout the day."

Local 2 Investigates recorded the security guard in action at a strip center on Eldridge Parkway at Briar Forest Drive.

A review of municipal court records found he wrote some tickets for handicap parking space violators, which is legal.

But he also forced people to pay up or fight in court such violations as double parking, being parked "not wholly within a space" and parking in a fire lane. The ticket book issued by the city gives him much more power than other security guards, who would normally have to call police to have official citations written.

Houston's top parking official, Liliana Rambo, said "We will make sure that we call the volunteer in, and that we explain to the volunteer what they're doing wrong. If it's something that keeps on happening, we could revoke the privilege of that person writing those tickets."

She said citizens can appeal their tickets through a hearing officer at municipal court if they receive tickets from volunteers that have nothing to do with parking for the disabled.

Rambo said abuses are rare for the 450 volunteers trained to write handicap-parking tickets. She calls the city's program is a huge success that is being mirrored by smaller cities.

Asked whether the training for volunteers is truly getting the point across to volunteers that they have no legal authority to write tickets for any other violations, Rambo answered, "I believe so."

Local 2 Investigates did some digging on the man caught on hidden camera after writing illegal tickets. Storeowners in the center he patrols know him as Capt. Steve Laredo.

The 57-year-old is employed by a private security firm that is run out of a northside house. The firm, Masters Protective Services, is listed on Laredo's license with the Texas Department of Public Safety's Private Security Division.He is paid by the property manager for the strip mall where he has been writing the city tickets.

Some customers say they have complained to Kroger and other shopowners, but they were told nothing can be done because someone else hired the guard.

Kroger's store manager declined to answer questions from Local 2 Investigates. He ordered the news crew to leave store property when he was asked about complaints from customers.

The guard also declined to answer questions, dodging away and hiding his face from the camera's view.

When asked if he is abusing his authority or whether he is writing the illegal tickets because he wishes he were a police officer, Laredo answered, "no," before he climbed back in his car and drove away.

The Houston parking boss said it would be too expensive to cut down on the chance for abuse by issuing volunteers ticket books that do not contain the dozens of other infractions that can only be cited by police or parking attendants.

Rambo said no one at the city had really been responsible for keeping an eye on the tickets being written by volunteers, but now a full-time city employee is dedicated to that.

"We just hired this person to do this on a full time basis," said Rambo. "He will be just training the volunteers (and) reviewing the citations that are brought in."

Volunteers are issued city identification cards and a volunteer number that begins with the letter 'V', which appears on any citation they write.

Rambo said she has only revoked a few parking citation books since the volunteer program started. She said that was based on rude behavior or lack of "customer service skills." She said she had never heard of over-stepping authority like the citations uncovered by Local 2 Investigates.

Clift-Mayers, and anyone else who receives a ticket from someone who has no legal authority to write it, now has to challenge the ticket at a municipal court hearing.

She said she will take the time and make the trip to downtown Houston as a matter of principle. "You cannot go around belittling people and writing illegal tickets. You just can't."