Arts & Entertainment
Chicago To Ex-'SNL' Star: Pay Your 20-Year-Old Parking Ticket
Actress Rachel Dratch posted on Twitter the notice she recently received from the city looking to collect on a citation from 1997.
CHICAGO, IL — Finding out the City of Chicago is still looking to collect on a parking ticket that's two decades old feels like a Debbie Downer moment. And if there's anyone who would know Debbie Downer moments, it would be Rachel Dratch, the "Saturday Night Live" alumna who created the character who's not nearly as old as the citation she recently received a notice about in the mail.
"Chicago does not f around. I received this parking ticket in the mail today," the actress wrote in a Twitter post Wednesday night that also included a photo of the ticket. "Look at date. It's from TWENTY years ago."
Dratch was issued the $73.20 ticket Dec. 8, 1997 — making it 19 years, eight months and two days old — and she apparently received it for illegally parking at 150 W. North Ave. That location is near The Second City theater, where Dratch performed as a member of the improv troupe — along with future "SNL"-ers Tina Fey and Adam McKay — from 1995 to 1998. (Get Patch real-time email alerts for the latest news for Chicago — or your neighborhood. And iPhone users: Check out Patch's new app.)
Find out what's happening in Chicagofor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Chicago does not f around. I received this parking ticket in the mail today. Look at date. It's from TWENTY years ago pic.twitter.com/GhC08Oyfkq
— Rachel Dratch (@TheRealDratch) August 10, 2017
Dratch's post generated responses from her followers and other Twitter users who gave suggestions on how she should handle the ticket and shared their own Chicago parking citation stories:
This is correct. They won't show and you won't pay
— Liberal Patriot (@dude_emdv2003) August 10, 2017
Are you on the lam now?
— Steve Mieczkowski (@IGotsSmarts) August 10, 2017
I also recently received a Chicago invoice for a violation in 2011...which I had paid. Ticket kindly showed I had a $0 balance.
— Michele (@MBarkinge) August 10, 2017
proof positive that it's near IMPOSSIBLE to find parking near @SecondCity
— Patrick Hasselbeck (@P_Hasselbeck) August 10, 2017
This is great. They sent me a ticket a couple years ago...and I don't own a car. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
— Gage (@gagesalzano) August 10, 2017
Did they retroactively add a soda tax?
— PDR (@PatrickDRedmond) August 10, 2017
I wish I could say the money would go towards city teachers and help to prevent future layoffs, but it won't. pic.twitter.com/5Dlyyh00Uy
— Dominic Gwinn (@DominicGwinn) August 10, 2017
Chicago doesn't have a statute of limitations when it comes to parking tickets, but the burden is on the city to provide proof that the tickets were issued and unpaid, according to an NBC 5 Chicago story from 2015. And when it comes to collecting on old, unpaid parking tickets, the City of Chicago takes an approach that sounds a bit like the pledge Daniel Day-Lewis' Hawkeye makes in "The Last of the Mohicans": "I will find you! No matter how long it takes, no matter how far. I will find you!"
Find out what's happening in Chicagofor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Rachel Dratch (Photo by Evan Agostini | Invision | Associated Press)
Like What You're Reading? Stay Patched In!
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
