HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) — You might say Tammy Witmer was “taken for a ride” — after the literal ride.

Witmer said her ride with a Lyft driver to Harrisburg International Airport began and even ended uneventfully, like any other Uber or Lyft ride she has taken. She boarded her short flight to Philadelphia, and that’s where — waiting for her connecting flight — she realized something was wrong: a series of messages from Lyft saying her driver indicated “cleaning is needed” after her ride to the airport, and she would be charged $40.

Witmer’s first thought?

“My gosh, I walked through the grass. Was there something on my shoes?” she said. “So I looked at the bottom of my shoes: completely clean.”

Lyft followed up with photos, which Witmer showed to abc27 News, of what she said appeared to be long-dried stains on the car’s rear seat. Another photo showed a sign hanging on the back of a front seat, which she said wasn’t there during her ride.

“So I don’t know if this guy does this continuously and sends these same pictures in,” Witmer said.

Witmer said she shared the story on social media “because a lot of my friends are also travel for work, so I wanted to make sure people knew about this. A friend actually commented on it and sent me a link [indicating] apparently this is a popular scam that goes on.”

The story gave advice for fighting the fees, including asking for a copy of the driver’s detailed report.

“What they told me was that the driver stated that I had a child with me, and that child urinated on the seats. So apparently I have an imaginary child with me,” Witmer said. “So I immediately respond and say I was a single rider. there was nobody with me. They were like, ‘Well, the driver verified that you had that you had a child with you.'”

The decision, a Lyft agent said in a text message, was final: “We will be unable to make any further adjustments to this fee.” Witmer showed the messages to abc27 News, which contacted Lyft.

Witmer said she heard again from Lyft that they had reviewed her case and were refunding the $40 cleaning fee as well as the regular cost of the ride.

Lyft confirmed that and said it takes damage claims seriously — and carefully weighs the accounts of both drivers and riders. It said this particular driver didn’t have a history of repeated damage claims.

“I hate that I had to go through this, and I don’t want anybody else to ever have to go through this,” Witmer said.