Chick-fil-A worker’s 10-minute parking turns into a $3,728 nightmare thanks to a glitchy automated machine

A TikTok user just ended up garnering millions of views after a Chick-fil-A employee was hit with a whopping $3,728 parking bill — but the crazy part is that she claims she had only parked the car for 10 minutes. Naturally, everyone rushed to the comment section trying to figure out how that could even be possible.

Part of why the story struck such a nerve is timing. The cost-of-living crisis wears on, and everyone is quietly pinching pennies wherever they can. Well, unless you were just at Davos, clinking champagne flutes and having spirited debates about “globalism.” For Lilly on TikTok, though, the context is far more mundane. When you’ve just come off a work shift, the last thing you want is a financial jump scare while trying to finish a few errands before heading home to catch up on Love Island.

That’s exactly where the video begins. Lilly, still in her work uniform, approaches the parking lot barrier. The clip is only 38 seconds long, so all viewers really see is her stunned reaction to the price, while her friend — holding the camera — giggles in disbelief. Lilly presses the help button to call for assistance, and even the person on the other end sounds surprised by the nearly $4,000 charge. The comments quickly filled with similar horror stories about parking system glitches. One user shared, “I flew a few months ago. I usually park in the remote parking lot and shuttle to the airport from the nearest lot. I prepay in the app for all my days gone because they give a discount. I get back from my trip after 3 days. The gate box says I owed 1700 dollars! I was like HOW?? I PREPAID. I shouldn’t even have to pay to leave.”

Despite the flood of speculation, most people just wanted to know what happened next. Lilly, however, never followed up and didn’t respond to a single comment. That silence left room for outside explanations. According to Motor1, the most likely reason she ended up in this situation is that she used the wrong ticket. The working theory is that she frequents the establishment often, had an old ticket still in her car, and accidentally confused it with the most recent one. When she fed it into the machine, the system calculated a completely absurd bill.

Stories like this are also a reminder of why TikTok, for all its flaws — especially amid accusations that it censors political content — still thrives. It has become the go-to place for everyday frustrations, whether that’s an overrated stylist, a lost relative, or a wildly inflated parking fee. There’s no telling what the TikTok algorithm will latch onto next, largely because the platform’s casual, unpolished nature makes moments like this feel instantly relatable.

And if you’re wondering whether this could happen to you, the answer is probably not. Modern-day parking systems are gradually moving away from traditional ticketing, as you may have already noticed. Many facilities are adopting License Plate Recognition (LPR), which scans your plate upon entry and exit and automatically calculates your rate. For now, it’s often used as a backup, but more institutions are slowly doing away with tickets altogether — making parking mishaps like Lilly’s increasingly rare.