Mass. couple gets parking ticket from place they’ve never been

By Ben Simmoneau

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    SUDBURY, Massachusetts (WCVB) — With scammers targeting us by text, email and phone, it can be hard to tell what’s real when you suddenly get a warning that you owe money. That happened to a MetroWest couple who got a parking ticket in the mail from Queens, New York, despite not being there on the day in question.

They thought it was a scam, but the violations kept coming and the fine kept growing, so they asked NewsCenter 5 for help.

March 12 was a routine workday for Heather and Richard Clement. So a few weeks later, when they got a parking ticket for that day in the mail from New York City, they tossed it. The ticket was for failing to show a parking meter receipt in a Queens parking lot at 9:06 p.m., when the Clements were at home in bed in Sudbury. The notice had very little information and no photo of the Clements’ vehicle.

“We were not in New York City. We’ve never been to Queens,” Heather Clement said. “Our truck has never been to New York City, so we thought absolutely it’s a scam.”

But then another notice showed up and then another. The fine growing with each notice.

“I think it started at $30 or something,” Clement said. “It’s up to $90.”

After the third notice, the Clements pulled a U-turn, thinking maybe it’s not a scam after all.

“Most scams are sent by text and email, and this was an actual notice on paper,” Clement said. “So we thought, ‘OK, maybe there’s something to it.'”

Richard Clement wanted to just pay the ticket and move on, but Heather hit the brakes.

“On principle, absolutely not,” she said. “We weren’t there. Our truck wasn’t there.”

Still, proving a negative is no easy feat. There’s no photo of the Clements’ plate on the violation notice because New York says it doesn’t take photos for parking tickets. It could be just a typo in the plate number on the part of the parking officer, or it’s possible the Clements are another victim of Massachusetts’ duplicate plate numbers.

It’s a problem NewsCenter 5 first brought to light eight years ago as electronic toll readers were rolled out on the Mass Pike and elsewhere across the northeast.

Massachusetts used to issue the same letter and number combination on different types of Massachusetts license plates: standard plates, commercial plates, veteran plates, among others. But the distinction in the plate type was not always enough for overhead toll readers to pick up, which resulted in some drivers getting hit with electronic tolls for vehicles that didn’t belong to them. The state stopped issuing duplicate plate numbers in 2019, but as recently as 2023, 161,000 Massachusetts plates were still on the road with the same letter and number combination as another plate.

If the Clements’ plate is one of those, it’s possible the ticket was actually intended for a different vehicle with the same plate number but a different class of license plate.

The Clements tried appealing their parking ticket but were turned down in part because they ignored the first two notices. NewsCenter 5 got them in touch with the New York Office of the Parking Summons Advocate, whose job is to help resolve disputes like this, and they are appealing again with their assistance.

Still, Heather Clement can’t believe New York doesn’t have photographic proof.

“I think it’s very unfair,” she said.

The registry says it has now cut the number of duplicate plates by 10,000, which means about 151,000 remain on the road. Despite that, they say the Clements’ plate is not one of them. They are the only ones with their letter and number combination, which means this was a mistake on New York’s end. Their case is proving just how tough it can be to fight city hall.

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