Woman issued ticket in Pittsburgh despite paying to park. What happened when 11 Investigates dug in

PITTSBURGH — There’s more parking ticket trouble in Pittsburgh.

A woman says she paid to park using the city’s mobile app, but got a ticket anyway.

Now, after she got that parking ticket, she immediately contacted the parking authority, but wasn’t satisfied with their response....that’s when she reached out to 11 Investigates.

Earle: You pay on the app?

Sara McBroom: Yep.

Earle: And then go [you] into your appointment and you come out and everything’s fine?

Sara: No ticket on the car, nothing like that.

A month later, to her surprise, Sara McBroom received a $25 ticket in the mail.

A parking authority mobile camera captured her car parked on College Avenue in Shadyside at 11:21 a.m., even though her receipt indicates she paid to park for an hour...between 11:09 a.m. and 12:09 p.m.

McBroom called the parking authority and they checked her account and could see that she paid, but she said the clerk then told her something that caught her off guard.

“She said the cameras just don’t work sometimes,” McBroom said.

Earle: That was her answer?

McBroom: Yes.

Earle: What was your response to that?

McBroom: I inquired a little bit about, hey, like, why are you using them? What’s the plan, resolution? Are you refunding everybody? Is there a manual review? She shut down and stopped being helpful, or polite or kind.

In a statement to 11 Investigates, the parking authority says it was not the camera.

They say the payment was never transmitted back to their office...so a ticket was issued.

This isn’t the first ticket issue we’ve exposed.

Back in December, we told you about a woman in Lawrenceville who got a ticket for parking during street cleaning even though she was legally parked on the other side of the street. She filed a complaint online, but the authority refused to dismiss the ticket. She went to court took time off work, paid to park downtown and the judge dismissed the ticket.

Channel 11 reached out to the authorty and they admitted to the mistake, claiming the camera picked up the wrong car while making a turn.

Councilman Bobby Wilson is on the parking authority board. He says they plan to meet soon to address some of the recent issues.

“We hope these are just isolated incidents and it’s something we can correct in the future,” Wilson said. “If you’re violating it, then you’ll get a ticket, but if you’re not, then we should definitely make sure that you don’t get that ticket.”

McBroom’s citation was eventually dismissed after she called to complain and 11 Investigates followed up with the authority.

Earle: Frustrating ordeal to say the least?

McBroom: Yes, very frustrating.

Earle says You wonder how many people were just caught up in that and how many people just go and pay it.

McBrooem: Yea and that’s what I said. I looked and did the math. I was like, is it worth going downtown to court, or is it worth paying the fine?

Earle: It would just be worth paying the fine?

McBroom: It would be cheaper.

It’s still unclear what led to the transmission issues.

The parking authority said it wasn’t a problem with the app, but didn’t provide any further details.

The bottom line: make sure you double-check your parking tickets.

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