As is often the case in life, timing is everything.
For Anthony Latronica, it was also expensive.
On Nov. 3, the West Town resident parked his car on North Avenue near Wells Street and walked to the nearest parking meter to pay.
His wife put her credit card into the pay box but could not get the device to work.
According to phone records, she called Chicago Parking Meters LLC at 7:47 p.m. but had trouble getting through. She hung up and called again at 7:48 p.m., and a representative walked her through the procedure. Phone records show the call lasted three minutes.
The parking receipt printed out at 7:51 p.m., and Latronica went to put it on his dashboard. But in the rough-and-tumble world of Chicago parking, minutes can make a big difference.
In fact, Latronica was too late.
By the time he walked the half-block to his car, Latronica had already been ticketed for an expired meter, the citation time stamped at 7:49 p.m. — two minutes after his wife called Chicago Parking Meters to complain about the pay box.
Stunned, Latronica grabbed the ticket and tracked down the ticker writer.
"He told me that he did see us standing at the meter and he would cancel the ticket," Latronica said.
That didn't happen. Several weeks later, Latronica received a citation in the mail, telling him he could either contest the ticket or pay $60.
Latronica chose to contest.
He sent in an explanation of what happened, a copy of his credit card statement and a copy of the meter receipt.
In early January, he received the ruling: guilty.
Upset, Latronica called the Department of Administrative Hearings and asked how, given his circumstances, the ticket could be upheld? After all, he was in the process of getting a parking receipt when he received the ticket. It wasn't as if he could get the meter receipt before he parked the car.
He was told that since the receipt printed two minutes after the ticket was issued, he could have run back and paid for parking after receiving the citation.
Unable to make any headway with the city, Latronica emailed What's Your Problem?
He said what irked him the most was the fact that he did nothing wrong and still got dinged. To appeal the administrative law officer's ruling would cost more money, he said.
"It is probably not worth the time, money and effort to bring a suit, but it really bothers me that this can be happening every day across the city and citizens are just denied when they contest it," Latronica said.
In fact, his experience is not an isolated incident. The same week that Latronica emailed about his situation, another reader, Holly Mair, wrote in describing a similar experience.
Problem Solver: Motorists get tickets while feeding meter
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Problem Solver: Motorists get tickets while feeding meter
