The sirens echoed through downtown Birmingham around 11:30 a.m.

From parking garages, the Monday Morning Quarterback Club members in business attire dash across 4th Avenue North. There they encounter that arriving police escort and the six-figure Mercedes it led to the curb of the Harbert Center.

In the uniformity of Alabama head coach Nick Saban’s calendar, the late October visit with the Birmingham leaders of industry is like a reflex at this point.

Amid the handshakes, the five-or-so minutes meeting with the dozen-plus news media members in the lobby and the members hitting the buffet lunch, one memory came rushing back.

Perhaps it was the sirens the spurred it.

But go back in time, 12 years ago Tuesday and the annual bye-week trip to Birmingham went off script.

Grab a seat, it’s story time.

Context is important here as we revisit the crime of the century because it came in the lead-up to the Game of the Century. The date was Oct. 24, 2011 and Alabama was coming off a 37-6 win over Tennessee and two weeks to prepare for top-ranked LSU.

RELATED: Nick Saban talks Alabama football bye week strategy, avoiding ‘Relief syndrome’

Any talk of a dynasty was still in the future as No. 2 Alabama was coming off a disappointing response to its 2009 unbeaten run to Saban’s first national title in Tuscaloosa. The three-loss 2010 included a wacky 24-21 blemish at LSU best remembered for sideline grass consumption.

Alabama was undefeated through eight games in 2011 and none were really close. LSU had barely broken a sweat through its first eight weeks as all eyes turned to Tuscaloosa for a two-week hype blitz for the ages.

All Saban had to do was navigate his Monday pilgrimage to Birmingham unscathed.

He came so close.

You see, in 2011, the Saban didn’t have a three-vehicle Birmingham Police escort. (That’s two motorcycles and an SUV if you’re keeping score).

So when the Alabama staffer pulled his Mercedes to the curb of the downtown event center that hosts the QB Club luncheon, there was nobody keeping a lookout for a downtown parking enforcement worker famous for her adherence to the law.

It was then, just as a group of reporters exited the Harbert Center lobby when this meticulous meter minder made headlines. This newsman, then at another local outlet, and a few AL.com beat writers witnessed the ticket being issued and placed under the windshield wiper of the pristine piece of German engineering.

That’s right. Nick Saban, more powerful than the governor, got himself a parking ticket.

The power of his office wasn’t enough to sway this letter-of-the-law guardian of Birmingham parking code. She inquired when we began documenting her production of the ticket that she never could’ve imagined would be news then and definitely not 12 years later.

Yet when she was told that was Saban’s car, this meter maven never missed a beat.

“Maybe he’ll give me a free ticket,” she joked while placing the ticket under the passenger-side windshield wiper, AL.com’s account of the moment detailed.

News of the infraction spread quickly. A few examples:

— PHOTO: World’s Bravest Law Enforcement Officer Ticketing Nick Saban

— THE ALPHABETICAL QUAKES IN FEAR FROM SABAN’S WRATH

— Nick Saban’s Car Got Ticketed by Attendant Hoping for Alabama Tickets

— Parking attendant to Nick Saban: Yeah, that’s the ticket!

The scandal!

And how much did that unlawful parking job cost the state’s highest-paid employee? A full $15. As I reported back then, the fine consumed 0.0000025% of Saban’s salary that year.

Now, 12 years later, the reverberations from that day remain.

Saban still visits every bye-week Monday but now three of Birmingham’s finest are there. Also, a worker from the building that hosts the meeting is posted on the sidewalk as a lookout because allegedly the same member of the parking patrol who ticketed Saban all those years ago supposedly still monitors the curbs of Birmingham to this day.

And there are some lost funds to make up for the Magic City. Just a year ago, the city forgave $35 million for 756,531 unpaid parking tickets issued before 2011, AL.com reported last March.

Anyway, it’s unclear how much the parking mishap contributed to the 9-6 loss to LSU the following Saturday.

Probably none and the story had a happy ending for those in crimson as Alabama got revenge on LSU in the BCS title game. The 21-0 win gave the Tide the second of three national titles in a four-year span.

But for one moment in time, the architect of what became a dynasty was just another parking perpetrator in the eyes of the most principled public servant in Birmingham.

That day, Nick Saban was just like us.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.