Los Angeles

Woman Says She Got Parking Ticket She Didn't Deserve

"My husband basically says that you have to have a Ph.D to park on the streets of Los Angeles," LA resident Kelly Kilmer said.

The only thing worse than traffic in Los Angeles is parking and nothing can ruin someone's night more than a parking ticket. One West Hollywood woman says she got a ticket she doesn't think she deserves.

For this woman, it isn't about the price, it's about the principle. She claims she did everything right, looked at the signs, read the meter, even overpaid, but she still got a ticket.

"My husband basically says that you have to have a Ph.D to park on the streets of Los Angeles," LA resident Kelly Kilmer said.

Ph.D as in parking hatred degree. Kilmer got her ticket near the University of Southern California.

"I was like you've got to be kidding me," she said.

Kilmer parked there to attend a movie, when she returned, we she found the ticket on her car.

"Oh my God, that's a parking ticket," she said. "I had never gotten a parking ticket before."

It was a $63 ticket for an expired meter that doesn't print receipts. She said she was really frustrated.

Kilmer claims she didn't do anything wrong. She checked the signs, typed in her space number and even overpaid.

"I did everything that I was supposed to do," she said.

To help prove her case Kilmer took pictures of her car, the meter, and luckily paid with a credit card.

"Every meter in the city of LA that a credit card is used on has a record of that," Los Angeles Department of Transportation spokesman Bruce Gillman said. "A credit card payment was made at that point in time but on a different meter."

Gillman said that Kilmer paid for spot 213 instead of 215 where her car was parked. Kilmer swears she paid for the right spot.

"I parked right there in front of that space and that meter so I know I didn't mess it up," she said.

Kilmer's efforts to get the ticket dismissed were denied. So she appealed and went to a hearing. In his finding of facts, the examiner notes, Kilmer's credit card was used to overpay for parking at meter 213 not meter 215 where she was cited.

The examiner writes, Kilmer "made a good faith effort to pay the meter. This examiner will dismiss the citation in the interest of justice."

Kilmer got her money back, after a lot of frustration and time. For a first ticket, this one will be tough to put in her rear view.

"I think that's only part of the process I really do think that these meters need to be better," she said.

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