PPA boots woman's car for unpaid parking tickets dating back to 1993

PHILADELPHIA (WTXF) - It's never a good feeling to come out to your car and seeing a boot because of parking tickets. But what would you do if the tickets that got you the boot are more than 20 years old? A Philadelphia woman is stunned after it happened to her.

When Sandra Geathers saw the yellow boot on her car she thought it was a mistake. The Philadelphia Parking Authority's boot squad hit the 5600 block of West Berks Monday night and her silver Toyota was one of them. She was shocked to find out that she had unpaid parking tickets from her old car dating back to 1993. To get the boot off her car she had to cough up $600.

So why after all this time PPA is giving tickets? Well, because they can.

The PPA tells us cars will get the boot if they have three or more outstanding parking tickets.They will cross reference your license plate with any old cars you may have had. They also say Geathers had seven unpaid tickets over the years and was notified back in January. She says she never got a notice.

There is a 10-year statue of limitations on parking tickets, but if you have more than three the PPA will try to track you down.

This 69-year-old disabled retiree says a little more warning would have helped.

"The city is out of control. They need to spend their time going after some real criminals and not someone like me," she said.