The Crime of being Clamped

To the best of my knowledge I've not done anything criminal in my life. However, I did feel like I'd done something really wrong last week. I parked my car in a 'pay and display' car park, whose signage was not that visible on my entrance into and on my pedestrian route out of it, and so I did not get a parking ticket. But on my return, I discovered that I had been 'CLAMPED'. It took a minute or two to realise the full extent of this situation before I made the phone call to the company to release me. After several attempts of speaking to the automated voice and getting very frustrated at the good of it, I eventually made contact. But I had to wait over 50 mins for the van to come and take the clamp off.
As I was waiting in the car for the de-clampers, a number of pedestrians and drivers entered and exited the car park. As they passed and saw the bright yellow clamp, they stared at both the car and me, the driver. Some tried to hide the fact that they were sneaking a look, but others just blatantly stared at me, as if I was an absolute criminal, and waiting to see the 'stoning'. So not only had I to suffer the annoyance of the clamp and the enormous fee of 90euro for declamping, but also the humiliation of being stared at as if I had committed a heinous crime.................! ( to say nothing about the leer of the declamper)
Now I feel a bit better having let off that steam, but it does not take away the sting.