Parking tickets placed on windshields despite drivers properly paying to park

DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) -- No one likes to get a parking ticket; now imagine you get a ticket for a parking space you properly paid for! That's exactly what happened to one Durham man.

He had proof he paid for 10 minutes of street parking in downtown Durham. He ran into a store and when he came out several minutes later, there was a parking ticket on his windshield.

ABC11 Troubleshooter Diane Wilson found out that this is not uncommon. If you pay using the parking app on your phone, oftentimes that information isn't immediately available to the parking enforcement officer.

In this case, the driver paid at 8:51 a.m. The officer wrote him a ticket three minutes later at 8:54.

In order to get the ticket thrown out, the driver had to bring a screenshot of his payment on the parking app to the Park Durham office.

Troubleshooter Takeaways

• Make sure you've actually paid for the parking when using the app.
• If you get a ticket, check to see if it was issued during the time you paid for parking.
• If you shouldn't have received a ticket, bring the citation and your app to the parking office in the city where you received it to ask them to void the violation. Sometimes you will have to appeal the ticket to get it dismissed.