Weird parking garage accoutrement

We were going to the market -AGAIN for the love- and happened to pull up to the ticket machine behind the slowest two women in creation. I'm waiting, waiting for them to press the ticket dispenser button when out of the window comes a rubber-tipped pair of tongs. The woman closed them to press the button and then opened them to clamp the ticket and draw it into the car. I've not seen this before. I think they were elderly.