CHICAGO _ Former "Saturday Night Live" star Rachel Dratch has lived in New York City for the better part of two decades.
But like a relentless stalker in a horror movie, the city of Chicago tracked her down _ and hit her with a $73 parking ticket from 20 years ago.
"I did a double take when I saw it!" Dratch told Chicago Inc. on Thursday after posting a photo of the ticket on Twitter alongside the observation that "Chicago does not f around." Nearly 5,000 Twitter users had "liked" the post as of lunchtime.
Dratch _ best known for portraying Debbie Downer on "SNL" _ said she is not in the habit of "living on the edge of the law" and is not on the run from City Hall. Though she initially joked that she was going to be the "Norma Rae of parking tickets," she later said she would probably pay it.
"I just want to make sure it's not a hoax," she said, adding that she has not previously received any demands to pay the ticket.
The ticket, issued Dec. 8, 1997, dates to Dratch's time as a member of the Second City troupe _ and was apparently plastered on her Honda at 150 W. North Ave. _ yards from the theater, leading Dratch to believe it is real.
"I don't even have a car now that I live in New York," said the comic actress, 51. "I didn't think my past transgressions would follow me for so long."
A City Hall spokeswoman told Inc. that Dratch was contacted at least five times previously, but did not say what steps the city will take if Dratch does not pay, or whether it intends to hound her to the grave.
The Emanuel administration, though, is known to have stepped up collection of parking ticket debt after the implementation of the Local Debt Recovery Program with the state government in 2012, and there is no statute of limitations on parking tickets.
