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Cost for tag and tow: $1,119
Eric Heyl is a Tribune-Review staff writer. He can be reached via e-mail or 412-320-7857.
After driving around Downtown in vain for 45 minutes on Independence Day, Jacque Christopher finally pulled into a spot near the Hilton Hotel. Many of the street's meters were adorned with yellow "no parking" signs; Christopher insists the meter in front of her space was not.
Regardless, when Christopher, 23, and her boyfriend, Matthew Mallick, 25, both of Fayette County, returned from the Point State Park festivities a few hours later, her Jeep was gone.
A nearby policeman told them it had been towed it to the city pound in the Strip District, which, of course, was closed for the holiday.
Because there was no way to immediately retrieve the vehicle, Christopher and Mallick called a friend for a ride home to Uniontown. The couple rose early the next morning, took time off from work and drove to the pound.
After paying the $90 ticket, Christopher handed the attendant her bank check card to pay the fee to retrieve the vehicle from the pound.
Instead of charging Christopher the correct $119 fee, an extra number accidentally was added and her checking account suddenly was $1,119 poorer.
I think we all can agree the attendant made a fairly large mistake.
"He credited the account right away," Christopher said. "But the way these things work, the money comes out immediately, but getting it back takes a few days."
During those ensuing days, purchases Christopher made with the check card before the error were processed by her bank.
Because the money mistakenly withdrawn from her checking account had yet to be officially redeposited, there wasn't enough money to cover the transactions.
As banks tend to do when afforded such opportunity, overdraft penalties began to be assessed.
Lots of them.
"This has to be ruining my credit rating," said Christopher, a sales representative for WOGG-94.9 FM (Froggy 94.9) in Brownsville. "At one point last week, between the charges to my account and the $270 in overdraft charges, I was in the hole more than $700."
It could take some time before the hole in her bank account is filled.
Christopher contacted the city law department, which told her to submit a claim for the overdraft charges. City Solicitor Jacqueline Morrow was unavailable Thursday to discuss when Christopher might expect a check, but according to the city Web site, such claims take up to 10 weeks to process.
Though Christopher is confident of eventually getting her money back, she said, "It's going to cost the city more to reimburse me than it got for the ticket and the pound fee. That's insane."
As for future Independence Day celebrations, you won't find Christopher circling Downtown streets searching for a parking space.
"Next year," she vowed, "I'm staying home and watching the fireworks on TV."
