A very long winded story about the Philadelphia Parking Authority

So let me tell you a little (OK, fine, it’s long) story about me and the Philadelphia Parking Authority the BASTARDS!!!

So back in 2001, yes, that is 2001, five LONG years ago, I got a lovely letter in the mail from the parking authority saying I'd gotten a parking ticket and hadn't paid it. Being the freak that I am I felt AWFUL and was sure that the ticket must have blown off the windshield and where could I expedite the check to. Then I slapped myself a few times and remembered a few things. One, I had an unbelievably expensive parking space in the basement of my building, then I drove my car WAY out in to the suburbs everyday to work for a financial services company that was paying my paycheck at the time and three, I never ever parked the damn thing on the street. Hmmm.. so I looked more closely at the ticket. It has my license plate number but no make/model of the car. Hmmm.... and where the hell is the street corner that they were charging me $63 for parking to close to the corner? Seems that corner was in a SERIOUSLY scary neighborhood in Southwest Philly. I can guarantee my car was never there at 1:00 in the afternoon. So, I do what any respectable MORON does. I call and ask what the make and model of the car ticket was because it wasn't listed on the ticket. No one could tell me. So I check the box to request a hearing and enclose a lovely letter. I hear nothing and get another ticket this time with late charges, so I check the "request a hearing box" enclose another letter and call again. Nothing.

Then I moved to Cincinnati, got a new car with a new license plate and think it's over. Nope, in 2004, I get another ticket in the mail! UGH! So I check the box, whip off a letter explaining I live in Cincy now but they are free to call me. I never hear from them again so I think it's over.

I got home from work on Friday and there is a letter from the Philadelphia. Park Dept. waiting for me. First thing that goes thru my head is, where the hell did Train Guy take my car, get a ticket and not tell me AND not pay it, jerk. Uh, nope, they found me again. And what's funny is that it's for the original $63 amount, STILL no mention of the make/model of the car but now there is a number to schedule a hearing and you can be DAMN sure that the minute I finish this post I'm calling to arrange a hearing. And oh yeah, I still have the letter I sent in 2004, the letters I sent in 2001, the cleared checks from the parking garage, my work calendar that actually DOES show I had a meeting out in the burbs that day and a picture of my car and copy of the registration that proves my car was a 2000 silver Jetta.

Of course just my luck, I'll get to the hearing and they'll say, coincidentally, it was a 2000 silver Jetta because life has been kicking me down like that lately. Sigh...