Tired of handling saliva-laden tickets presented by drivers, an attendant at the Dunedin International Airport ticket booth decided to do something about it and placed a sign in the ticket booth reading: "Please do not put the ticket in your mouth.
Your co-operation is appreciated."
Dunedin International Airport operations manager Richard Roberts investigated the issue and discovered an estimated one person per flight put their ticket in their mouth before handing it over.
It was unclear whether the sign - which had been up for more than a year - had deterred serial ticket biters, he said.
A wet ticket had the potential to spread germs and also jam machines that read tickets, a spokesman for New Zealand's largest private car parking operator said.
"But I think that would be unlikely.
"You see the odd person with a ticket in their mouth but besides from being a bit gross, it is not a big problem," Wilson Parking NZ South Island operations manager Daniel Bundy said.
People perhaps put tickets in their mouth because they were "multi-tasking" and that was one way of keeping it nearby, he said.
Citifleet team leader Brent Bachop said the Dunedin City Council had the potential problem licked.
Council-controlled parks used an automated system.
The only problem council experienced with the parking tickets was when people bent their tickets, he said.
