Around 9:30 last night, I took my car to go visit a friend.
I parked in a metered parking lot around 9:40pm and, for some reason, I thought parking was free after 10pm. I threw a dime in the meter and was set for 24 minutes of parking. Plenty of time.
Or so I thought.
I returned to my car to find the dreaded envelope from the violations bureau. Confused, because free parking starts at 10pm, I looked at the sign. Free parking starts at midnight. Oops. Well, $20 for a learning experience isn’t bad. At Arizona State University, your meter running out gets you a nice $86 fine (I won’t go into all the times my friends have caught the ASU parking police writing them tickets with time still left in the meter).
I brought my ticket home with me and put it on the kitchen counter to pay the next day.
Today I took a look at my citation. Where it was describing the vehicle, in big letters it says TX. My car is not from Texas. A thought formed in my head. If I don’t pay the fine, they’ll never be able to trace it. My Arizona license plate won’t register any violations if they look it up in their data base. I know, because I typed in my correct license plate information online to make sure.
We're sorry, no parking Citations were found in the system for the Citation or license plate number that you entered.
I want you all to know that I mailed out a check for $20 today to the City of Milwaukee. I made a mistake and, limited in funds as I am, I was raised to accept the consequences of my actions. Also, Catholic guilt. It’s not a myth. I’m full of Catholic guilt. I know if I’m not doing what I think is the right thing and I don’t let myself forget it.
Maybe if my situation was different, I would have felt that paying that fine just wasn’t top priority for me. It’s only $20 but, what if I needed that $20 to eat this week, or to pay bills? I understand that, for some, this mistake would have been a huge relief. For me, it would have been cheating to get out of an annoyance. And I know my $20 is going to fund good things like street maintenance and garbage collection.
I also consider myself lucky. This could have worked in my favor, had I let it, but it could have just as easily gone against me. What if they had just towed my car? What if I had called to report my vehicle missing and they had no record of it?
I did write them a little note of complaint and sent it in with my ticket.
Sorry I let my meter run out, but was insulting me by calling me a Texan really necessary? :-P My car is from Arizona.
Maybe the people at the Bureau will at least get a good laugh out of it.
Why that was the best compliment they could have given you, calling you a Texan.
For reasons unknown to me, I really don't like Texas. It might have started with marching band competitions when I went to high school in New Mexico... Driving through it to get to Wisconsin from Arizona certainly didn't win it any points either, even though it looked exactly the same as New Mexico and Oklahoma. :-P
The biggest compliment they could have given me would have been to not leave a citation. ;-)
"What I lack in decorum, I make up for with an absence of tact."
Don Williams, Jr.
Read my Blog!
The Sex Change Blog
Well, technically they didn’t leave your car a citation. Too bad Catholic Guilt doesn’t accept technicalities.
*sigh* the Force is strong within me...
"What I lack in decorum, I make up for with an absence of tact."
Don Williams, Jr.
Read my Blog!
The Sex Change Blog
I feel ya. The force seems to grow stronger in me everyday...
The person issuing the ticket should have done their job more carefully and paid closer attention to the license plate. I am not really sure if I would have gone ahead and paid the ticket or not, but given my current financial status, I probably would not have paid it. I would just keep reminding myself that whoever wrote that ticket was getting paid to do their job correctly, and if they didn't, it is not my fault.
I would definitely have to justify myself if I chose not to pay it!