Parking ticket foul up

[Stealhead]

I received a parking ticket in the mail today.Only problem is it is from the Miami-Dade county clerk of courts. I live over 200 miles away from Miami on the other end of the state on top of this I nor my my work truck have ever been inside Dade county before.

This thing was a seond notice the first being the ticket itself and was $47.00.

Sure enough though it has my license plate number and they got my address that way.So I call the 24 hour number on the slip (of course they have a 24 hour service as they want you to PAY)The last thing they mention in the automated system is to speak with an operator so I do that.

The lady asks for the ticket number and brings up the information.Funny thing is right away she can tell that it is wrong my truck is a 1993 Ford F-250 and this was a "gray Dodge" she also sees that the address is very far away from Dade county.

So I get put on hold while she looks over things.She tells me that someone must have misread the officers writing and input the wrong letter as she can see that the first letter is a "V" and my tag starts with "X" the rest of the plate numbers are the exact same.This reminds me i know can figure out the persons address maybe i should send them a friendly letter "thanks for tossing that ticket A-hole you nearly cost me".

So she has the ticket removed from my record and transferred to the correct person boy will they be most excited in the next 3 to 4 business days.:cool:

This whole thing is still annoying to me as in Florida if you fail to pay they can impound your vehicle and they will suspend your license.The first is a pain but the latter can mean going to jail if a cop pulls you and that would really have had me ticked off.Even if you do not get nabbed by a cop for suspended license (which they often fail to notify you of by mail I have been told)I would have had to prove the mistake and I am sure still been forced to pay some government fine anyway for their mistake.

Just a suggestion to those with licenses here in the US(and all over the world for that matter) you might want to check your ticket record from time to time just to be sure you do not have a bogus ticket on you that you are not even aware off.

Of course all is not said and done for me until I can confirm in the system that Dade county's mistake had been fully corrected.

In a third world country you have to bribe the cop not to fine you in a first world country dingbats makes mistakes that cost you money or have the likelihood to cost you.
The thing to me is if this clerk found this mistake in all of 10 seconds why had it not red flagged before wait I know why civil tickets are a source of revenue and they hope that you just pay anyway even if it is a mistake.

For example had they towed my work truck I cant drive to work with my gear of course some guy stepping onto my property trying to take my truck well he would have gone home empty handed.

[Platapus]

Glad it worked out. Sounds like the lady you talked to did her job.

[Stealhead]

Glad it worked out. Sounds like the lady you talked to did her job.


She was nice and of course I try to be passive in such situations.A clerk for a court talks to plenty of jerks in a day I am sure.Be too much of a jerk and they might not actually do anything depending on the person and you have no idea the personality on the other side of the phone.

[Jimbuna]

Lucky you....I hope it works for me here in the UK should it ever happen in the future :cool:

[Stealhead]

She did not go into details but I assume it being Dade county they carry a device that prints the tickets out for them and they either write on a touch screen and it prints it out and take digital photo of the completed ticket before they print it.

It might have been old school pad paper though but it took her no time to find so that makes me think that she had a digital copy of the ticket that she could pull up right away.Still though strange that it did not get caught before it got to that point the plate registration would have shown a conflict with the vehicle.

[Buddahaid]

Get a written response about the ticket getting sorted. I had a parking ticket in SF that I paid at the clerks desk that failed to clear and received an arrest warrant a year later. Good thing I still had the receipt.

[Stealhead]

I cant though I never paid any money as it was a screw up of one letter on plates (my tag is xyz the correct tag was one off wyz)So it is a transfer to the correct plate and that person pays the fine. It was a gray Dodge (never said what model) with a plate number one numeric difference from mine.Also the woman said that on their copy of the ticket they have the correct plate # not mine data entry error.

No way to get a receipt when you did not pay or actually owe any money.The only thing I can do is check my record for parking tickets (which you can do for free). They better fix because I have no problem contacting a lawyer.That is the whole problem though it actually getting properly fixed.Who is to say they do not make some other mistake?

Well it had better be fixed on Monday or I will be calling for sure.I checked the Miami-Dade system it is still in there might(better)be that the system will not show the change until Monday or Tuesday.I do notice that searching via my tag number brings back nothing but using the citation number does of course maybe it is always this way and they only store the data under citation number.

It is just government BS like this ticks me off and the things are set up if they do make a mistake the burden of proof is still upon me even though in no fault of my own did I do anything.

How the hell you see a citation for a two door Dodge and then you look at the information for vehicle resisted to that tag and see that it is a different make vehicle all together is beyond me but boy they did not miss my name or address did they?

So the ticket was issued in West Miami looking at the West Miami Police Department web page they have an e-mail a crime tip link :hmm2:

I should send them e-mail advising that perhaps their officers should learn to properly fill out paper work and input data before they try and solve any crimes lest it all get thrown out thanks to sloppy paperwork. Not trying to knock them for being cops either it just bugs me a stupid mistake like this should have been caught.To me kind of signifies that the officer might have made a mistake when the ticket was written and "fixed" it later rather than doing the right thing and just tossing the ticket out.

I always took the time to make sure that the paperwork I filled out on a daily basis in the military was correct and it was pretty important if you failed to mark that a unit was not safe for operation someone might try to use it and get killed.

So far as I can tell they do not place a warrant against you for parking violations but they can report you to a collection agency which messes up your credit again even if it turns out to be wrong the blemish is still there.

Always a monkey on the back it seems.

Lucky for me I have a relative that works for a very large law firm in Broward county just up the road from Dade and the federal court is in Dade she is down there just about every week.

@Buddahaid I see what you mean now I thought you meant a receipt anyway I will call and ask that something be sent to me or ask that there be some why they can confirm it in writing.Could be that clerk forgot to say that they send one.

[Aktungbby]

So I get put on hold while she looks over things.She tells me that someone must have misread the officers writing and input the wrong letter as she can see that the first letter is a "V" and my tag starts with "X" the rest of the plate numbers are the exact same.This reminds me i know can figure out the persons address maybe i should send them a friendly letter "thanks for tossing that ticket A-hole you nearly cost me".


" >< ^" of course to a 'gendarme' whose 'hot pencil' principle motivation is the coffers of his municipality,! a v is just the top of a bad x! Send the fine via (certified) FED EX...all in pennies!:hulk: HULK PISSED!:up:

[kranz]

you got drunk, forgot that you parked there - case solved.:)

[Wolferz]

Transposition in writing always hurts. I once ordered a small part for a customer and transposed one digit in the part number. The part came in on the back of a semi trailer... (a full truck frame) oopsie:huh:

Big ticket items had to be verified afterwards.:haha:

[Webster]

the ignorance of the system is no excuse, if they impound your car or charge you falsely its just something you are supposed to laugh about and not get upset over :/\\!!


all this for one wrong key stroke and now you have to wonder if this lawbreaker will make a habit of getting in trouble and will you get mixed up in it again because of it.

if I were you and knew someone else had my number like that I would get a new plate to avoid more mix ups in the future

[Platapus]

all this for one wrong key stroke and now you have to wonder if this lawbreaker will make a habit of getting in trouble and will you get mixed up in it again because of it.

I really doubt this error will have any effect on the other driver's intent to continue to break the law.

if I were you and knew someone else had my number like that I would get a new plate to avoid more mix ups in the future

I would think that the chance of a typographical error with his existing plate would be exactly the same as if he got a new plate number. Every non-personalized license plate is one wrong key stroke away from a mistake.

Perhaps a solution is a personalized license plate. But depending on the area, even those are getting hard to get unless one uses "creative" letter combinations and then we are right back to the start with a vulnerability to a typographic error.

I think the key is to recognize that this was a mistake, not a conspiracy that requires protective action.

[Stealhead]

The thing to me is that the error should have been noticed.You in Florida your tag is tied to your registration it all together maybe that is not the case in other states I do not know.

Anyway when your plate number is run they will see all that information your address the vehicle make and model so some how they put that data while reading the ticket would have of course the plate # and vehicle make and model yet they failed to observe the discrepancy.How can one manage to get the correct mailing information yet completely miss that there is a major mismatch as to the vehicle? This little tidbit is what is ticking me off they have no problem getting the correct address so they get their money yet they care nothing about making sure that other rather important information is correct.

I do not think it a conspiracy it is a case either of the person writing the ticket making a mistake they should have caught or the person inputting the data having been in error.It does to some extent though indicate that they are not overly concerned about accuracy they just want the revenue that the tickets generate that is their primary concern and sadly for them they will see nothing from me.

[Webster]

I would think that the chance of a typographical error with his existing plate would be exactly the same as if he got a new plate number. Every non-personalized license plate is one wrong key stroke away from a mistake.



not quite because new plates use different combinations of letters with numbers where older plates just used one letter and the rest were all numbers so its more common for older plates to get mixed up then newer ones. add to that the fact that newer plates with a combination of letters and numbers is more often rechecked for accuracy then older plates are.

in my state a new plate is yours for the asking at no charge because it help them better keep track and avoid mistakes.

granted stuff happens and you cant avoid all things but this is a known issue he knows about and I think he would have better peace of mind knowing he had a new plate that wasn't the same as anyone elses except for one letter

I do see your point, I just think in this case ignoring it and hoping it never happens again isn't the best option

[Stealhead]

I fail to see the logic in your opinion Webster.How would a person just getting a new tag avoid a similar mistake? It will not.No matter what a tag number is always going to be one digit mistake away from another tag the fact that you get a new tag means nothing.

You would have to get a personalized tag which I will not do first because they cost twice as much every year and secondly I personally think that custom tags are asinine they just draw attention.Even a custom tag someone might have very similar custom and a mistake could still occur and then you just paid an extra $80.00 a year for nothing.

You also assume that the person is a repeat offender and maybe they are but if they are clearly they have gotten fines before.To me it was a one time mistake not really much I do but make sure that they take the fine off of my record.

Again though it comes back to someone not simply looking at the tag information and seeing that the vehicles do not match in my opinion that error should have nullified the ticket completely.The funny thing as I have already said though is they had no problem pulling up my tag info to get my mailing address yet they missed or had no concern to confirm that the vehicle on the ticket and the vehicle on registration information where matching or not.

Oh and guess what? The ticket is still showing up against me so the woman I spoke to the other do did not do jack squat.What crap.This just shows that they do not care and they just want their money which they will not be receiving from me.Time to speak with a lawyer and see now it is going to cost me no matter what because it seems that they are refusing to correct their error.And of course the lawyer will tell me that the **** is rigged and you can not be sure to win so just pay the $47.00 i have a feeling.