PITTSBURGH — He fought for our country and now he’s fighting the City of Pittsburgh because of a parking ticket he said he got outside of the VA.
Veteran Dennis Winterborne makes regular trips to the VA in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood. But on his last visit, he ended up with a $113 parking ticket -- a ticket he says he didn’t deserve.
Winterborne parked on Allequippa Street, just across the street from the VA. He said the first thing he noticed was how confusing the parking signs are, but then after taking a closer look, it appeared he was allowed to park in the spot because it was during off peak hours.
But Winterborne said after his 15-minute trip to the hospital, he came out to his car to find a Pittsburgh police officer writing him a ticket.
Winterborne said he tried to explain to the officer why he thought it was OK to park where he did.
“I pointed at the sign and I said, ‘I’m good.’ and he said, 'You didn’t report to the office,” Winterborne said.
And that brings us to the part of the sign that says, “All visitors must report to Falk School front desk.” But Winterborne said he wasn’t going to the school, so why would he have to report to their office?
We contacted the Pittsburgh Parking Authority, which did some digging. They told us that the sign is a private sign put up by the Falk K-8 School on the University of Pittsburgh campus and they likely contacted Pittsburgh police when they saw Winterborne’s car parked on their street.
Winterborne said regardless of who’s responsible for the sign, it’s misleading and needs to be fixed.
Click here if you have a parking ticket in the city of Pittsburgh you would like to contest.
In the video below, Channel 11′s Joe Arena walks you step-by-step on process of fighting a parking ticket.
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