Washington DC traffic ticket
 

My friend gets a ticket from Washington DC Dept of Motor Vehicles. It was from a traffic cam.

He's never been in DC. He and his wife didn't even know where DC was, until I showed them on the map. I looked up the citation and it's no car he ever owned. Believe me, nothing like a car he's ever owned.

How on earth does this happen? I've found quite a few articles about those controversial traffic cams...things being wrong with them and such, but nothing about getting someone else's ticket, identified as you, and sent to your home email address in Podunk OH.

They've already sent a letter that it's not them. I'm researching it for them as they have no computer access/skills.

Any advice on what to do next? Is there a way to track tag numbers?

It was funny because his wife was freaking out about "he never speeds! he doesn't have that tag number! He only had the Durango back then!"

I'm like "calm down...you're dwelling on these inconsequential details when all you gotta say it HE'S NEVER BEEN IN DC!" :lol:

This happened to my son, who lives in DC - he got a ticket for parking on some street several blocks away from where he actually parks (with a permit), in a no-parking zone. He went over to look at the spot and he's never been there.

But the machines are NEVER wrong, according to the law ...

(This also happened in Ontario when we were back there for two years, and there was no defense permitted against the machine's output.)

Did he have a copy of the camera output?

I mean, there IS a car with an OH back license plate and it IS in the 600 block of new york avenue...but it ain't my friend.

I get mistakes, but attributing it to someone who's never been there?

Maybe if I ask again someone can tell me: is there a way to determine tag numbers/owners or at least location of owner?

I knew a guy who used to pay cops to run license plates for him when he was a private eye. It's against the rules, but some cops will do it for $.

Even if you had that info, how would that help?

They should write a letter saying "the license in the picture is xxx-xxxx, and mine is yyy-yyyy"

I don't know. I guess to show that whoever was in that spot at that time wasn't my friend, it was someone else.

It's 150 bucks plus 150 late fee. WTF? I mean, sounds like DCs motor vehicles is running a damn scam.

And if they don't pay, what happens? DC puts a boot on their car if they ever visit?

Hahahahaha. True.

It is weird, but it's hard to communicate to them it's not a huge deal.

http://dmv.washingtondc.gov/serv/tic...ntrespond.shtm
If you don't pay, it goes into default. If it's in default, the DC DMV won't wait on you until you pay the ticket and late fees.

Well hell, I guess R ain't ever going to run for a high public office (if you knew him, you'd giggle.)

Thanks, I'm going to print that and give it to them with the other stuff I've found. :)

You can dispute the ticket on the DC DMV website. I've gotten a couple of DC parking tickets and a couple of red-light camera tickets from DC and VA, all for cars that weren't mine. In your friend's case it was probably some sort of database mismatch between the databases of DC and your friend's state DMV.

Thanks HM!

You can get Private Investigators/Detectives to do background checks, some charge per check (Some as low as $15-$20.), others will let you pay an annual fee for unlimited checks. You can do this from the internet. 100% legal.

Perhaps they do plate/tag checks also?

Hmmmmm. Thanks Grav. I have an idea now. :)

Just got a postcard voiding my last mistaken-identity ticket.

They could always drive on over to DC and contest it in traffic court. What is it? Like only 300 - 400 miles or something? Maybe they could make a day of it and watch Congress run over the fiscal cliff like a bunch of lemmings. That would probably cheer them up.