KANSAS CITY, Mo. – It was starting out as a very bad Monday for Corey Black.

“Yeah, it was a pretty big bump,” said Black who had hit a large pothole as he drove under the Independence Avenue bridge on his way into work.

That pothole destroyed his tire, costing him $165 in damages.

Black immediately notified Kansas City, which has a policy of not paying pothole claims unless the city was aware of the pothole in advance.

He thought he was in luck. The city’s 311 pothole reporting website showed that a pothole under that same bridge had been reported the previous week by someone driving in the opposite direction.

Black said the pothole he hit was large, possibly spanning both the eastbound and westbound lanes.  So, Black filed a claim with the city asking for his damages to be reimbursed.

He was denied.

Black was livid and wanted to show the city the previous report. But when he called up the city’s website, that previous pothole report was no longer listed. Luckily, Black had grabbed a screenshot the first time he saw it.

That’s when he called FOX4 Problem Solvers.

“I feel like they are in the wrong,” said Black, referring to the city.

FOX4 Problem Solvers called Kansas City. A spokesman told us he also couldn’t figure out why that original pothole report had disappeared from the 311 website. The city is looking into it.

The spokesman also said there was confusion over the exact location of Black’s claim vs. the previous claim under that same bridge. The city has now reopened Black’s case.

Since Jan. 1, the city has paid 67 claims for pothole damage. That’s a little more than 10% of the claims submitted. We’ll let you know what happens with Black’s claim.