There's only one way to describe Jennifer Fitzgerald's ongoing battle with the City of Chicago over her more than $105,000 in parking fines: A total nightmare.
Wednesday, Fitzgerald's parking mess was prolonged after a judge dismissed her lawsuit against the city, CBS Chicago reports. Fitzgerald filed suit last November arguing the city violated its own laws by repeatedly ticketing the vehicle instead of towing and impounding it, thereby allowing the fines to balloon.
The Expired Meter reports that, at the same time, Fitzgerald rejected the city's "unprecedented move" to drop the record amount of fines to less than $2,500.
According to the Tribune, the single mother rejected the offer because her former boyfriend, Brandon Preveau, wouldn't pay up; Fitzgerald and her attorney argue Preveau is the vehicle's true owner and the responsible party, alleging he abandoned the car in an employee lot Fitzgerald couldn't access at O'Hare airport where the fines accumulated.
"It's not all my fault," Fitzgerald told Fox Chicago. "He's knows that that's his car. He knows I couldn't get into that lot." "I think it's just a big misunderstanding. I could not get in that lot to move that car. He had the car keys, he had everything."
Though Judge Thomas Allen threw out the lawsuit, he encouraged Fitzgerald to try again with a different angle, all the while blasting the city's action as "a ridiculous, robotic march to write tickets on a $600 junk car," DNAinfo Chicago reports.
Fitzgerald's 1999 Chevy Monte Carlo had the dubious distinction of — per City officials' estimation — the most-ticketed vehicle in Chicago history, racking up $105,761.80 in fines for 678 parking tickets issued over nearly three years.
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