A North Texas couple says their car has never left Texas or Oklahoma, yet they received a parking ticket from New York City.
When their appeals to NYC kept getting denied they called NBC 5's Samantha Chatman.
The Browns said their car has been up and down Interstate 35 on occasion and driven to Oklahoma a couple times, but that's about it.
When they got a parking ticket in the mail from New York City, they thought it was fraudulent. But, they took a closer look and saw their license plate number.
"I pulled up on their website expecting to see an image of our car, but of course there wasn't one," said Kathy Brown.
The couple disputed the $75 ticket online, adding documents that they believed would proved they weren't in New York on Aug. 18.
They said they submitted debit card purchases from a Sonic and Jimmy Johns in Coppell, Texas and a Texas Toll Tag charge from the night before the ticket was issued.
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"They came back and denied it. We couldn't believe it," said Brown.
A few months later, they got another notice, this time for $95. They appealed, and it was denied.
And then another one, now for $125, and once again their appeal was denied.
When they realized the consequences of not paying, they decided to pony up the dough and call NBC 5 Responds to try to get it back.
We called New York City's Department of Finance to look into the matter. When we heard back, they believed they had figured out the problem.
The ticket belonged to someone with the same make, model and license plate number as the Browns. They said the only difference was the state. An employee must have accidentally clicked Texas instead of New York.
That same week, the browns got a letter saying their car was "not at the place of occurrence at the time of offense."
"We were able to get the charge reversed and now we're scot free," said Joel Brown.
It's $125 that the Browns no longer have to worry about.
If you find yourself in this situation, here are Samantha Chatman's Solutions:
• Send the city as much proof as possible, just like the Browns did.
• Include pictures, invoices and even toll tag records to prove where you were at the time of the citation.
• Keep all of your documentation. Don't throw anything away.
