PASADENA (CBSLA.com) — A longtime resident is a receiving a formal letter of apology from Pasadena after he received parking ticket paperwork that had changed his last name to a racial slur.

Pasadena resident Sean Ching was fighting a parking ticket but was upset over the slipped name more than he was over the denial.

“I usually turn the other cheek and take the higher road, but something like this; I was just shocked, then I got really angry,” Ching said.

“I was really offended, especially being in Pasadena,” Ching said. “I grew up here. (We) were one of the first non-white families here, so I’ve always dealt with a little bit of racism.”

Ching contacted the city and was told it was a mistake. Wanting an apology, he says he was promised one nine months ago.

Ching eventually took to social media to voice his complaint, and the city says an apology letter from Pasadena Department of Transportation’s Frederick C. Dock was in the mail, reading in part:

“Staff was unable to clearly read your handwriting and mistakenly wrote ‘ks’ instead of a ‘g.’ It was never our intention to disparage you.”

Ching, who is of Chinese ancestry, was born in the United States.