Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Single Mom Owes $105K In Parking Fines Because Of Ex-Boyfriend

Three years ago Jennifer Fitzgerald and her boyfriend broke up. Apparently the boyfriend was bitter about the breakup so he went and bought a really old junker of a car. He then went and registered the car in Jennifer's name and parked the car at Chicago O'Hare airport and left it there for three years. The car was cited 678 parking violations which totals about $105,000 and the city of Chicago would like its money and has come collecting from Jennifer Fitzgerald who is an unemployed, single mom. Jennifer has gone to court to sue her ex, but right now she is still the one on the hook for paying the fines. It is the largest single amount of money ever owed in parking fines to the city.

52 comments:

HalleGoLightly said...

Wouldn't it just get towed at some point??

supapimp said...

Why didn't they just tow it after a few parking tickets?

katsm0711 said...

I'm dying to know what she did to him that was so horrible

EmEyeKay said...

I'm dying to know his diagnosis.

Tru Leigh said...

Yet one more reason to be grateful I'm single.

Anonymous said...

@katsm0711 - some people are just that vindictive...maybe all she did was wound his pride. And if they can prove he bought the car, and registered it in her name, why aren't they going after him? I don't get it. They have to know this is a set up!

Cathy said...

How do you register a car in someone else's name? Wouldn't there be something for them to sign?

distracted said...

I can't believe they didn't tow it. How strange.

yodelay said...

Is he related to Scary Berry?

chopchop said...

I'm thinking the same things as Cathy. Didn't he have to sign something, like the title? Did he forge her signature? Because that's a felony.

KellyLynn said...

I can totally see this happening. Chicago is a bulldog when it comes to inflicting and enforcing fines. There is no compassion in any of that city's bureaucracy, either. They don't care how the bill was made, as long as it gets paid.

Connie151 said...

How can she possibly be responsible for a car she did not buy or did not register?

SecondCityKid said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Caraface said...

Does Illinois allow someone to register a car online? If so, he could have easily done so in someone else's name and sent in the paperwork with a forged signature. I think when the dust settles on this, he's gonna be in a shitload of trouble.

Maximus said...

What a fat piece of shit.

Maximus said...

Him. Obviously not her.

Sherry said...

What a jerk and what a buncha idiots for not towing in the first place. Hope she gets out of it.

I donated a car years ago and then got a bill for storage from some place in another state. I didn't even own the car and had signed it over so why they traced it to me I'll never know.

Sarah said...

Evil

LottaColada said...

@Cathy that was my first thought as well. I think she knew it was under name, I mean how could she not? She had to of signed for it and shown ID but got careless after they broke up. I read somewhere else that they were together when he got the car which Enty left out.

Snapdragon said...

Class A douchecanoe, that man.

I hope she grinds his ass into powder in court.

Maximus said...

https://www.facebook.com/brandon.preveau?fref=ts

Share the love!

EmEyeKay said...

I sold a car to a guy when I was a teenager, and he didn't register the title. I got a bill for parking and towing from the City of Portland a year later, because he'd left it at a parking meter. I had to show the bill of sale to get off the hook (and really, I could have made that up - a bill of sale can be on a napkin).

I find it hard to believe that they let the car sit for three years, tho.

LottaColada said...

The Astounding Story Of How A Car Worth $600 Racked Up Over $100,000 In Parking Tickets

SecondCityKid said...

Jennifer's uncle sold the car to douche, but signed it over in Jennifer's name, Douche worked at O'hare for American Airlines, but paid for the city sticker & insurance. Abandoned the car there somewhere in 2007...fast forward to current crappy situation.

KellyLynn said...

Lol@SecondCityKid's "figures" comment. The douchebags are usually Cubs fans, aren't they?

CantHaveMyPurse said...

How is this legal? If she didn't sign for it, and she didn't ok the purchase, why is she liable? Can anyone do this to anyone at any time? Where are the lawyers to hash this out?

KendraWM said...

The little paragraph left a lot out, like he worked at the airport and parked it in a secure employee lot, that you need to be an employee to access. The family apparently asked him to get the car several times.

http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/11/06/52015.htm

Anonymous said...

That's where I should have stashed the body.

SecondCityKid said...

Lol Kelly...I deleted my previous comment but, attending a particular crosstown classic @ Wrigley, and being heckled by drunken businessmen for cheering on my team (in a stand up yay! smile and clapping non-obnoxious way) and having them whip a beer bottle (yes, they must have smuggled that in) at me, along with throwing cups of beers at my companion...left me with an unfavorable impression lol

katsm0711 said...

I love you @sean lol

MadLyb said...

If he worked at the airport, and parked in the appropriate lot, why so many tickets? This story should have never happened, LOL. It points to gross incompetence of whomever is in charge of ticketing. The car should have been towed after a week.

MadLyb said...

Or rather, a week after getting the first few tickets. There's more to this story than meets the eye...

katsm0711 said...

@second I freaking hate ultras more than anything!!!! It doesn't mean you love your team the most if you fight with opposing fans!

caralw said...

I used to live in Chicago. They will tow or give boot after two tickets in final determination. This doesn't add up.

Amber said...

I hope he forged her signature so that smartass gets some jail time. Jerkoff.

KellyLynn said...

I may be biased against Cubs fans, having grown up in Cardinals country, but I have seen much more obnoxious behavior from rowdy Cubs fans than I ever saw at US Cellular Field.

lilivonshtupp said...

How does a car not get towed FROM AN AIRPORT?? Isn't that one of the few places where you want to be on top of information such as "do we or do we not have an abandoned vehicle on the premises?"

cricket said...

I don't understand why it wasn't towed. Who the hell lets a car sit there for three years collecting tickets? I've never been to a Cubs game,but when I went to a Blackhawks game in Chicago the fans were very nice even though we were wearing our St Louis Blues jerseys. But when the Blackhawks come to St Louis the fans that come here to see them act like total assholes. Last year about three rows of them got thrown out for fighting in the stands

katsm0711 said...

@kendra it looks like very few people are reading your comment or clicking your link.... Thanks bc I googled just as your comment came up and saved me time :)

Jolene Jolene said...

This just reminded me to pay my (Chicago) parking tickets! Two were at notice of determination and I was afraid I'd get das boot.

As a Cubs fan and a Blackhawks fans and a Bears fan, every team has asshole fans, folks. But by all means, keep believing that it's just the fans of the teams you don't like. :)

Henriette said...

This reminds me of Judge Judy yelling about women not getting cell phones or cars for men.

Dramamonkey said...

Actually, it's even more disconcerting that it was left at a pretty major AIRPORT in a SECURE employee lot. Not to be all paranoid, but the car was left there for THREE YEARS....whose to stop someone from doing something that would cause some major airport damage?

redfishbluefish said...

The article linked fills in a lot of the gaps. I am thinking she allowed him to put the registration in her name, but beyond that really stupid mistake (and at the time he was her boyfriend and father of her child...perhaps she wanted to ensure he had a way to get to work?). More disconcerting is the security issue O'Hare and the city should have to face in the media for allowing a car to sit for so long. What's stopping an employee from cooking up a terror plot with this kind of security loophole?

If I were a juror on this case, I'd say the tickets were valid up to the 30 days to which the city then declared it an abandoned vehicle. After that, them piling on the tickets was ridiculous and the city should be ashamed of itself for pursuing this. Of course, there are many reasons Chicago city gov't should be ashamed of itself, but I digress.

I also don't see any mention of the alderman being involved...that surprises me. As an aside, I lived in Chicago for 12 years. I'm a diehard Cubs fans, and I can assure you I'm not the type of fan you guys reference. I've enjoyed just as many games down at the Cell (or "The Joan" as my friends and I called it). I'd argue that any boorish behavior was from the idiots who treat Wrigley as a speed dating venue and beer garden, and not from the true baseball fans. YMMV.

Agent**It said...

Lotta and Kendra, great links , thanks .

car54 said...

holy crap, what an asshole. Don't get on the wrong side of the State of Illinois--I lived there 30 years ago and had an unpaid ticket and it took me like 25 years to get it off my record.

Every time I would move it would come up and every time I would try to follow up and clear it up and pay whatever it was and they would say it was done....and it wasn't.

Poor girl. I too can't understand why they wouldn't tow it--altho even if you get towed they charge you for however long they keep your car at the towing lot. She needs to try to fight this because he registered it in her name without her knowing isn't that some kind of identity theft or something?

Pookie said...

wth kind of a psycho ass DOES this? poor lady.

AKM said...

Cards fan in STL here. We went to Wrigley a few years ago for a Cubs-Pirates game. We rooted good-naturedly for the Pirates, natch, and the Cubby fans could not have been more fun and welcoming. Had a great time at the Cubby Bear and other Wrigleyville bars after as well. Again, could not have had more fun. The rivalry is usually a fun and silly one, not a deadly and scary one.

You know. FWIW.

annabella said...

someone in this situation - the boyfriend and/or the uncle - is guilty of fraud. so, jennifer should not have to be on the hook. I hope the b-friend gets fired. there's no explanation for that kind of vindictive behavior and if he's done that, he's done many other bad things as well. if I were his employer, I wouldn't ever trust him again.

Sandbox720 said...

I don't think anyone needs to worry that she will get stuck with these fines. What he did IS identity theft. This is just as bad as taking out credit cards in someone else's name.

He will be the one who pays for this in the end. It is just unfortunate that she has to deal with the BS until it is over.

Anonymous said...

How can a car accrue fines for 3 yrs AT AN AIRPORT!

OneGirlRevolution said...

Hey now, leave my Cubbies out of this. >:(

nova said...

If it was here car and he abandoned it in a lot he knew she could't retrieve it from, that would be... theft... as in permanent deprivation of the rights of ownership

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