Thousands of erroneous violation notices sent out by computer glitch

(3/25/06 - KTRK/HOUSTON, TX) (KTRK) -- A computer glitch sent out thousands of parking violation notices to the tune of $100,000. While it's a glaring error, the city of Houston could still profit in a big way from this mistake.

Every time you come to the municipal courts building, it costs you in some way. For Seth Hart, it's not about the time he spent there. It's about the principle of paying for parking to dispute a ticket he didn't even get. And thousands could be in his shoes.

Hart received the notice last month. It's a reminder to pay $25 for a parking violation. So this week, after paying $3 for parking in the lot across the street and standing in line, the judge told Hart what he already knew. There was a mistake and he wasn't the only one.

Four-thousand people got the same notice. Apparently the vendor the city uses to generate them had a computer problem.

"It was just a glitch of the system that happened at that particular time," Liliana Rambo with the Houston parking management division told us.

Case closed, right? Wrong. What about Hart's $3 that he paid for parking, multiplied by the others who may have done the same thing? .

"Three dollars times 4,000. That's $12,000 and that's just the bare minimum we're talking about," said Hart. "It could be more if people paid money without contesting it."

At first, he was told he couldn't get his money back

"The city is going to make money off of it," he said. "It's revenue they shouldn't be making."

We took the issue to the parking commission.

"We'll be able to refund him the three dollars for being in the parking lot," said Rambo.

All Hart has to do now is call the city's parking management division for a refund. The folks there advise people who got these notices to clear up the problem over the phone or online. And for those who may have actually paid the ticket, we're told they will be refunded their money once it's processed or if they have other outstanding tickets, the payment would be applied to their balance.
(Copyright © 2006, KTRK-TV)

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