Apostrophe in Node Title PHP pattern renders "ParseError: syntax error, unexpected 's' (T_STRING)"

Not sure what is going wrong here but I am sure it is simple.

The token [node:field_report_store_name] ("Text field" token) doesn't handle special characters which [node:field-report-store-name] ("Field 'field_report_store_name' token) takes care of. This token, however, works alone without PHP, but when I try to use it in a PHP pattern, I get an Unexpected Error upon updating the automatic node title.

The below works without error, but special characters such as apostrophes display as "'":

$storename = '[node:field_report_store_name]';
$city = '[node:field-report-zip:locality]';
$state = '[node:field-report-zip:administrative-area]';

if(empty($storename)) {
  return $city.", ".$state;
} else {
  return $storename." in ".$city.", ".$state;
}

The below is the exact same code but with the token that handles the special characters, and produces an Unexpected Error:

$storename = '[node:field-report-store-name]';
$city = '[node:field-report-zip:locality]';
$state = '[node:field-report-zip:administrative-area]';

if(empty($storename)) {
  return $city.", ".$state;
} else {
  return $storename." in ".$city.", ".$state;
}

The settings are set correctly:

The error as reported in the dblog says:

ParseError: syntax error, unexpected 's' (T_STRING) in auto_entitylabel_eval() (line 2 of /sites/all/modules/auto_entitylabel/auto_entitylabel.module(447) : eval()'d code).

This would be the following function:

/**
 * Evaluates php code and passes $entity and $language to it.
 */
function auto_entitylabel_eval($code, $entity, $language = LANGUAGE_NONE) {
  ob_start();
  // @codingStandardsIgnoreLine
  print eval('?>' . $code);
  $output = ob_get_contents();
  ob_end_clean();
  return $output;
}

The problem must come from the fact that my apostrophe (') is an escaped quote ', that is intended to prevent breaking a string when the module evaluates the code.

For example, if the token evaluates to that's a single quote, then some portion of the code may evaluate to

$token = 'that's a single quote';
which will break on the 's', hence the unexpected 's' (T_STRING)

Is this a module bug or how do I overcome this in the PHP pattern?