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Local Woman Ends Up With Philadelphia Parking Ticket Because Of Handwriting Mix-Up

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- A local woman was threatened with a boot on her car if she didn't pay a parking ticket from Philadelphia.

The things is, she's never been to Philadelphia.

Doreen Simeone's daughter got a $106 bill.

Highfield: "Have you ever been to Philadelphia?"

Simeone: "Never in my life."

Highfield: "Has your daughter ever been to Philadelphia?"

Simeone: "Never in her life. None of us have ever been to Philadelphia."

Turns out, this has happened before to people in our area. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote about it in the early 2000s.

Simeone was unable to straighten out the situation, but KDKA's David Highfield got a spokesperson from the Philadelphia Parking Authority to look into the matter.

The ticket was not issued by a parking attendant, but rather a police officer. Police officers there write out tickets by hand, and apparently someone mistook an "X" in the license plate for a "Y."

That slip up meant Simeone's daughter got a bill she didn't deserve.

The spokesperson had it corrected and sent out a new bill with a balance of zero.

Parking attendants in Philadelphia now key digits into a machine, so there's no chance of misreading someone's handwriting on their tickets.

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