A central Illinois woman got two confusing pieces of mail from the city of Chicago, indicating she was on the hook for hundreds of dollars. It turned out to be a clerical error that's been happening to drivers for years.

Aly Marsh, of Washington, Illinois, near Peoria, got two letters on the same day – one of them via certified mail – telling her that her car had been impounded, but there was a major problem with that. It wasn't her car.

Now it looks like a system built for efficiency is running on outdated fuel, and she's not the only one affected.

Living approximately 150 miles from the city, Marsh thought two letters from the city's Streets and Sanitation Department might be related to a recent road trip to Chicago.

"I'm like, 'Oh, I got red light tickets,' or like some, you know, we all, like, expect that at some point," she said.

What she read instead was that her car was impounded and accruing $25-per-day storage costs, something that immediately didn't make sense.

"I'm like, I'm in my car. I wasn't in Chicago on that date. I do not have a Ford," she said.

She got the letters on a Saturday. Unable to call Chicago City Hall until Monday, she worried she could somehow be on the hook for an unknown cost, but when she called, Marsh said, "They said, 'If that's not your car, throw the letter away. We get dozens of these calls every day.'"

That Streets and Sanitation employee blamed the letters on the department's own system.

"He said, 'It's just, like, full of errors.' So, okay," Marsh said.

Marsh wasn't the first person to get such a confusing letter from the city.

In March 2022, Jay Hencken – living in DeKalb County, 60 miles from Chicago – got 12 notices in one week telling him a car he hadn't owned in more than a decade had been impounded. The Illinois Secretary of State's office confirmed the car wasn't registered to Hencken, but to a Chicago resident. Hencken had sold that car more than a decade earlier to his insurance company after severe storm damage, but the city's notices still went to him.

In Hencken's case, the city said the car's new owner applied for a temporary license plate and never fully transferred the vehicle to his own name. 

In Marsh's case, a city spokesperson indicated the letter was meant for a previous resident at Marsh's address.

"In this instance, two registered owners had a combined total of five addresses on file," the department said. "The Department sends letters to all addresses to ensure we are contacting the person(s) who are eligible to redeem the vehicle."

They asked that "all residents keep their information current to ensure all government notices are going to their preferred addresses."

CBS News Chicago asked the Illinois Secretary of State's office if they had any more information about why Marsh's address was linked to this car, and if they knew how many more outdated addresses might be a part of this system. They said they're working on getting answers.

In this case, letters went to five addresses, meaning there could be others who had this moment of confusion and concern as well.

City officials confirmed the car that was impounded in Marsh's case has been recovered by its owner.