“I used the app that you told me to use to pay.”
A Charleston, South Carolina, attorney’s parking ticket dispute has turned into a viral TikTok saga that has exposed widespread issues with the city’s parking enforcement system.
The creator, known as hotmesquire (@hotmesquire16), documented her three-part battle with Charleston’s parking authority after receiving what she calls an illegitimate ticket despite properly paying for parking through the required app.
The initial video, posted Jan. 5, has garnered over 17,000 views as the creator detailed how she paid for two hours of downtown parking using the city-mandated Flowbird app, only to find a $14 ticket on her windshield just 14 minutes after parking. What started as frustration over a single ticket evolved into a broader investigation of systemic problems affecting Charleston residents.
In the first video, posted Jan. 5, hotmesquire explains, “I went downtown today, which I hate going downtown, but I digress,” hotmesquire begins in her first TikTok, speaking directly to the camera from her living room. “Anyway, I used that stupid Flowbird app that they make you use to park now and got a receipt, commenced my parking for two hours at 2:58 p.m., which would mean my parking ended at 4:58 p.m.”
The creator explains that she returned to find a ticket timestamped at 3:12 p.m. “Oh, so I paid for two hours of parking, and a mere 14 minutes after I parked, you wrote me a ticket for allegedly not paying the meter, even though I used the app that you told me to use to pay,” she says in the video.
When she attempted to appeal the ticket online, she discovered another problem: the city’s appeal system appeared to be broken. “When you go online to appeal your parking ticket, they won’t even let you appeal it,” she explains, showing viewers a message requiring an appointment with an adjudications officer within 30 days.
The real issue became apparent when hotmesquire clicked the provided link to schedule the required appointment. The link led to a non-functional webpage, effectively preventing anyone from appealing their tickets. “Really? Really?” she asks in the video, clearly frustrated by the broken system.
“I mean, oh, I’m going to go through with this. The city does not know. I have the time. Well, I don’t really have the time. But I’ll make the time,” she declares in the first video.
Her second video, posted Jan. 6 with over 4,890 views, revealed the scope of the problem as dozens of commenters shared similar experiences. “I am so appalled and frustrated for the amount of people who have left comments saying that the same thing has happened to them,” she says.
The story gained traction when local news station Live 5 reached out to cover the issue. Initially, the city contacted hotmesquire, claiming the ticket was valid because she had entered the wrong license plate number in the Flowbird app.
However, hotmesquire had evidence that contradicted this explanation. She revealed that the city’s own parking enforcement had previously issued her tickets under two different license plate variations, acknowledging that one of the letters could be read as either a “D” or an “O.”
“I said I actually have prior parking tickets from the city recently where they have issued them using two different license plates for my car,” she explains in the second video. “The O is sometimes misread as a D and they have issued me tickets using both.”
In her third and final video, posted Jan. 7 with over 2,600 views, hotmesquire announced an unexpected resolution. The city had applied its own logic about license plate discrepancies to a previous $45 ticket she had legitimately received and paid on Christmas Eve for parking in a commercial loading zone.
“The citation issued to your license plate for a parking meter on [Jan. 5] is being upheld as a valid citation,” the city wrote in an email she shared. “This $14 citation will be upheld and deducted from the $45 you previously paid. We will be issuing a refund in the amount of $31.”
The irony wasn’t lost on hotmesquire.
“The city tried to flex the logic of, ‘Well you had a typo in your license plate so this is a valid ticket regardless of whether or not you paid for the parking,’ has now backfired on them,” she explains in the final video.
The comment sections across all three videos revealed the widespread nature of Charleston’s parking enforcement problems. One commenter, mg, shared: “I got a $45 parking ticket for ‘tow zone’ when there were literal lines for a parking space. In my residential zone too!!”
Another user, heather83922, who works downtown, observed: “You should see them. They just wait by the cars for the one minute to be up for them to give people tickets. It’s horrible!!!”
The videos sparked suggestions for broader action, with AlissaTV recommending, “If I was a reporter I would FOIA all them documents that showed the revenue the city brought in for the year. And also FOIA how many appeals have been submitted.”
According to hotmesquitre, 5 News took that advice, filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for statistics on parking tickets issued, appeals filed, and successful appeals from 2024 forward.
While hotmesquire repeatedly emphasized that her fight wasn’t about the $14 ticket, her persistence highlighted systemic issues that many residents simply accept rather than challenge. As one commenter, BaileyBucks843, noted: “Sounds like a class action lawsuit.”
The creator’s background as an attorney gave her both the knowledge and tenacity to navigate the system that many residents found too complicated or time-consuming to challenge. “It’s about advocating for yourself and advocating for others because honestly like I do have the time and the energy and the knowledge to figure out how the system works,” she explains in the second video.
In her final video, hotmesquire extends an olive branch to Charleston Mayor William Cogswell.
“Mayor Cogswell, if you see this it will be nothing but respectful and productive,” she says, emphasizing her willingness to engage in constructive dialogue about improving the system.
The saga demonstrates how social media can amplify individual grievances into broader conversations about municipal accountability and citizen rights, ultimately forcing institutional changes that benefit the entire community.
Motor1 has reached out to hotmesquire via TikTok direct message for additional comment. We’ll be sure to update this if she responds.
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