Desiree and Jeff Jolly parked their Honda sedan in the Russian Hill neighborhood, on the corner of Union and Larkin streets.
When they returned, photographs showed, the red line had been painted alongside their car, with gaps left around the wheels.
“We came out and we were walking up from the store and I noticed the ticket on my car,” Desiree Jolly told local news station ABC7.
“If it was warranted I don’t have a problem with it but this seems unfair to me.”
Painter Jeff Jolly said of the location: “Anytime it’s open I’ve been parking here for 25 years.”
He joked: “I saw that and I even have painter friends who say what a bad job that was. They missed a spot!”
San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority confirmed the ticket is for a red zone violation, but insist the old red line was still visible when the couple parked.
They provided a photograph, taken before the repaint, which showed an extremely faint red line.
Archived Google Street View images from 2016 and 2021 showed the red paint appears to have almost completely faded away.
The ticket is being contested in a process which can take a maximum of 60 days, ABC7 reports.
Desiree Jolly, who is currently being treated for cancer, said she does not appreciate the extra stress.
“I’m going through chemotherapy right now so it’s like I’m worried about other things and now I have to worry about this,” she said.
The couple said they recently had a catalytic converter stolen from their vehicle and are hoping to leave San Francisco because of the disruption in the city.
“We do want to leave because of all of this stuff that goes on in the city,” Jeff Jolly said.
The couple are planning to emigrate to France when they get chance.
Earlier in July, another San Francisco couple had a $1,500 parking ticket for parking on their own driveway scrapped.
Judy and Ed Craine forced city planners into making a U-turn—after proving it has been used as a parking space since the 1950s.
The dispute ended only after the couple trawled through hundreds of historic photos online, and discovered an aerial photo from 1938 that shows either a car or a horse-and-buggy pulling into the driveway.
