FOX 32 helps Chicago woman get unfair parking ticket dismissed

Sometimes it seems as if Chicago’s streets are a jumble of signs, telling you where to park, where not to park, whether you'll be towed if you park and so on.

But a Northwest Side woman says she has found the most confusing set of parking signs in the city, and it cost her a $200 ticket.

Susan Fett lives in the Jefferson Park neighborhood and for the past year, she's had two bum knees, so bad that she qualifies for a handicapped parking placard.

Last November, she drove to the Logan Square neighborhood to meet a friend for dinner. She parked her car at Armitage and Kedzie under a sign showing a handicapped symbol with the hours 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.

“I mean it says clear as day, it's okay to park if you have your handicapped sign. So I parked. An hour later come back out there was a ticket,” Fett said.

The $100 ticket was for parking in a rush hour zone. Another sign on the same pole says no parking between 4 and 6 p.m.

"I think it's crazy. I don't understand. Number one, the sign is like oxymoron. You can park. But you can't park. But you can park,” Fett said.

So, Fett took some pictures and sent them with a copy of the ticket, believing the city would recognize the confusion and dismiss the fine.

"All of a sudden I get a letter in the mail telling me I owe two hundred dollars. I was like this can't be real,” Fett said.

After two knee surgeries a month ago, Fett is now on leave from her job as a health technician with the VA and says she can't afford to pay for tickets she doesn't thing she earned.

"If I'm wrong I'll pay the fee. I'll stand up and say I did wrong. I should not have parked there. But with that sign being the way it is I don't think it's wrong,” Fett said.

So, FOX 32 called City Hall and after a review, a finance department spokesperson told us they've agreed to dismiss the case: "While motorists are always required to follow the most restrictive sign... we understand that this sign can be a little confusing. So we are moving to vacate the ticket."

The city spokesperson says one of the problems is the sign is so old and faded it was difficult to read, so they plan to replace it with a new sign that will more clearly spell out when it's okay to park and when it's not.