New York City overturns parking ticket issued to Lincoln, Vermont

New York City has officially overturned a $115 parking ticket it issued to the town of Lincoln, Vermont, for a 5-ton wheel-loader that town officials say never left the state, WCAX reported.

A Citation for a Machine Parked in Queens

The citation claimed the town’s wheel-loader was parked illegally in Queens and came with a $115 fine. Town administrators say the machine has barely left the garage, much less traveled to the Big Apple.

“This Is Totally Wrong, This Is Totally Incorrect”

“This is totally wrong, this is totally incorrect,” Lincoln Town Administrator Trish Waugh said about the ticket that came in the mail.

New York City parking ticket for Vermont excavator baffles town officials

This case shows how a mistake in paperwork or record-keeping in a large city can lead to a fine being sent to a small Vermont town, where officials had to investigate because they say the equipment was in a Vermont garage when the ticket was issued.

Months Spent Fighting a Cross-Border Fine

Town administrators in Lincoln had been contesting the parking ticket for months, arguing there was no way the citation made sense. For a municipality like Lincoln, $115 may be small in dollar terms, but the bureaucratic burden of disputing a citation from another state is not. Town staff had to appeal the decision and wait while New York City administrators reviewed the case.

New York City overturns parking ticket issued to Lincoln, Vermont

Rescinded, With a $0.00 Balance

After months of fighting the ticket, Lincoln officials appealed, and New York City administrators discovered an error and rescinded the fine. The official notice from New York administrators now shows the balance due as $0.00.

New York City’s reversal closes the matter with no money owed, and the town’s wheel-loader remains, as far as the record shows, exactly where Lincoln officials say it has been all along.