ST. LOUIS – Drivers who parked downtown for Blues games months ago say their credit cards are now being swarmed with $20 charges.
The mystery charges say, “City Hall Events” and they hit bank statements last Thursday.
“Right away, we were like, ‘Stop the credit cards,” driver Tom Walsh said. “I know I don’t have 12 cars and I know I wasn’t downtown Thursday morning.”
Walsh says no one in his family has parked in the City Hall lot since February. Yet credit card statements show 12 mystery charges spread across three credit cards his family has used at the parking lot in the past. Walsh added that all of the charges showed up on their accounts between 3 and 4 p.m. on May 16.
They popped up so quickly Walsh says they cancelled all their cards.
“We didn’t know if they were going to keep doing it,” he explained. “You know, just keep going and going. The next day they could run 12 more.”
Because it’s the City Hall parking lot, FOX 2 checked with City Hall, but a spokesperson said it is the Treasurer’s Office responsible for this issue. After no response to phone calls and emails Friday, FOX 2 visited in person. The Treasurer’s Chief of Staff and another representative gathered the evidence and also agreed to listen to Walsh’s story via speaker phone.
“I will look into it immediately,” the Chief of Staff told Walsh.
Nearly seven hours after our visit, the Treasurer’s Office said they found a backlog of transactions processing that was not cleared until last week. The office says these are not fraudulent payments or overcharges.
“Even though parkers may have paid for parking in March or April, those pending charges never processed,” Michelle Smart, the parking division’s CFO, said.
The Treasurer’s Office promised to explain in detail later this week, as many drivers may now be facing the same issue.