NEW YORK (WABC) — More than $1 billion — that’s how much the city of New York issues each year in parking ticket and camera violations.
Fighting a ticket though, proved to be quite difficult for a woman who lives out of state and you may be surprised to learn what she was ticketed for.
“This is a crazy system that needs to be reviewed,” said Patricia Waugh. “I don’t reasonably see how you can look at our evidence and not see that there’s some kind of difference, that something’s wrong.”
Waugh lives in upstate Vermont where she’s a town administrator.
Back in February, she received a parking ticket in the mail claiming one of the town’s vehicles was parked illegally in Queens.
“My first reaction was that it was completely wrong, there’s no way that vehicle left our property,” said Waugh.
It’s not a passenger vehicle. The ticket was licensed to a 2015 John Deere Excavator. It’s a piece of equipment that weighs at least five tons and would have to be carried on a truck to leave the town limits.
Waugh started the process of disputing the ticket online.
“The process going through it is frustrating,” said Waugh.
She received numerous error messages stating the system was experiencing “unexpected technical difficulties.”
She had to complete the process online four times before receiving a confirmation.
“I sent them everything I could possibly send then I figured, OK, this is a no brainer, they just wrote down the wrong license plate number,” said Waugh.
Meanwhile, the late fees were adding up.
Then she tried calling, and she also submitted a dispute through the mail just in case.
“I was like OK, this is ridiculous I’m just going to mail everything,” said Waugh.
Five months after receiving the original ticket, she received a denial back in return. She was ordered to pay the ticket, with late fees.
“We’re going to have to pay the ticket, we have no choice, at this point, we’re wasting time,” said Waugh. “I was going to do it in protest.”
She mailed the check for the ticket through USPS and sent a letter to the city’s Department of Finance explaining what happened.
The department wouldn’t tell Eyewitness News anything about what might have possibly gone wrong in the process. They said each ticket disputed is reviewed by an independent Administrative Law Judge. Disputes can be filed online, through an app or by mail.
One month after Waugh said she sent her check, it still hasn’t been cashed and the city then sent her ticket to collections for non-payment.
The Department of Finance set Waugh up with the Office of the Parking Summons Advocate to help appeal the decision.
In a statement, the Department of Finance said:
“So far in 2026, OPSA has met with 3,834 customers regarding 25,978 parking and camera violations. We encourage anyone experiencing parking or camera violation related issues to contact the office at nyc.gov/parkingadvocate.”
We found some people do have success disputing tickets. Last year, $28 million in fines were dismissed after not guilty hearing decisions.
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