Here's How You Rack Up $106K in Parking Tickets

A Chicago woman has agreed to pay the city $4,500 in overdue parking tickets, which seems like a princely sum until you learn the original bill was $106,000, reports the Chicago Tribune. Jennifer Fitzgerald reached the settlement with the city this month. How on earth did the fees get so high? It seems an ex-boyfriend abandoned a car registered in her name in the employee lot of O'Hare airport. There it sat for nearly three years as police piled on ticket after ticket, 678 in all. Only then was it towed.

Fitzgerald, overwhelmed by the mounting violation notices, finally got some legal help and filed suit against the city to dispute the six-figure bill, reports DNAInfo. She argued that she didn't know the car was registered in her name—her ex had bought it from her uncle for $600—and wondered why the police didn't tow the car far earlier than it did. Under the $4,500 settlement, her ex-boyfriend will fork over $1,600, and Fitzgerald will pay off the remaining balance in monthly installments of $78. (Click for another wild ticket story.)