'Dead' tag lands woman's vehicle in PPA impound | Action News helps get her back on the road

A Montgomery County woman turned to the Action News Investigative Team to help untangle a license plate mishap that got her the boot.

The discovery of the mistake began in June when the King of Prussia woman came out to find her car immobilized outside her job in Manayunk.

But a call to the Philadelphia Parking Authority revealed a much bigger mess that she needed help to fix.

"This is my title. You can see I purchased it on August 9," said Brittany Walker

Walker bought the 1995 Mercedes Benz after seeing an acquaintance post it for sale on social media last summer for $2,600,

"I was really excited. I thought, 'I need some kind of car to get me around.' I didn't have a car at the time," she said.

She had met the seller at a reputable auto tag dealer and, according to Walker, the transfer went smoothly.

"We went in and did the transfer and registration," she recalled. "I got a new plate and we were on our way that day."

Walker insured the vehicle, and admits she'd been ticketed at the end of last year and those tickets went unpaid.

So, when she saw that boot last month she wasn't too surprised.

"I was like, they got me because I knew I had four tickets on that car," she said.

So, she called the Philadelphia Parking Authority to set up a payment plan to get her wheels back.

"I had eleven tickets, totaling $1,260," Walker said.

The parking authority told her the tickets were connected to the plate but that the plate was not in her name or connected to her address.

However, it was a name she recognized - another acquaintance who she says at one time owned the vehicle.

"He owned it and then he sold it to the next guy that sold it to me, but they're friends," she said.

With this other name attached to the tag, that meant the PPA could not remove the boot and the Benz would be towed.

So, Walker called PennDOT for help.

She was told that despite being titled and registered to her, the plate number on the car was now a dead plate, meaning PennDOT had wiped it from its system and it shouldn't be on the road.

"It's a big mess," she said.

That's when the Action News Investigative Team got involved and called the PPA, who helped us sort it all out.

After our call, the PPA gave Walker an emergency adjudication hearing. It also removed the tickets that had been mailed to the wrong address.

"In this particular case, she did nothing wrong," said Executive Director Richard Lazer, of the Philadelphia Parking Authority. "She did everything she was supposed to do. And she just didn't know and got caught up in the system because there was an error at the front end at the tagging agency."

The next day after Walker paid the fines she rightfully owed, she was able to get a new plate and drive her vehicle out of the impound.

"This was an error initiated by a contracted agent of PennDOT. When the previous owner of Ms. Walker's current vehicle attempted to transfer their registration plate to a new vehicle, the agent inadvertently transferred Ms. Walker's current plate to the previous owner's vehicle. Neither the agent nor the previous owner noticed that the incorrect plate was transferred until a few days later. When the previous owner transferred the correct plate, Ms. Walker's plate was made invalid, which led to her current situation. We apologize for the error and we have addressed the issue with the agent," a PennDot spokesperson told the Investigative Team.