Staff at a Chicago museum that’s home to a replica of KITT, the black Pontiac Trans Am David Hasselhoff drove in the TV series Knight Rider — which hasn’t moved from its exhibit in years — have been left baffled after receiving a speeding ticket assigned to the vehicle from a New York City parking authority.

The Volo Museum on the outskirts of Chicago recently received a US$50 traffic ticket alleging its car was going 36 mph (59 km/h) in a 25 mph (40 km/h) zone in Brooklyn on April 22.

The museum shared a photo of the parking ticket on Instagram, with the caption “Well, this is a new one… we got this in the mail today. This is 100% legit. A traffic camera captured Knight Rider’s KITT speeding down the streets of New York City.”

The ticket shows a black Trans Am with the California licence plate KNIGHT, the same plate as the car on the show and the novelty one on the museum’s unregistered display vehicle.

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“Does anyone have Hasselhoff’s number? He owes us $50!!!!” The caption joked.

How the city linked the unregistered plate on the replica to the museum is unclear. City officials did not respond to email and phone messages from the Associated Press on Wednesday requesting an explanation.

“The fact that we’re legally tied to a movie prop is interesting,” Jim Wojdyla, the museum’s marketing director, said.

“We’re known for having our Hollywood cars from TV and movies, but I have no idea how we got registered from a ticket in New York to the plates in California to the Volo Museum in Illinois. We’re still trying to figure it out.”

The museum has requested a hearing challenging the ticket.

“It’s really amusing,” Wojdyla added.

“We want to find out who this Knight Rider guy is because birds of a feather. We just want to know is this from a museum, is this just a guy that built this car as a hobby? And it looks pretty damn accurate. We’d like to meet those guys.”

The Volo Museum is making light of the mishap across its social media pages. It recently changed its Facebook header to “Home of the Knight Rider KITT that famously got a speeding ticket in New York City without ever leaving its exhibit in Illinois!”

Knight Rider aired on NBC between 1982 and 1986 and starred KITT (Knight Industries Two Thousand), a sentient black Trans Am with a snappy onboard computer, molecular-bonded outer shell, turbo-boost capabilities and a built-in flame thrower.

During the show’s production, about 20 KITTs were built. According to the museum, of all the cars used for the show, only five originals remain. Some belong to private collections, while others have appeared over the years at Universal Studios and the NBC theme park.

Numerous replicas of the fictitious vehicle, including the museums, are also in circulation. A Facebook group called Knight Rider KITT Car Club, for people who own them, has just shy of 19,000 members.

— with files from the Associated Press

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