Posted on 11/08/2018 6:52:07 PM PST by mtrott
Just a heads up to anyone who may experience something similar. First, I have been a resident of TX since 1972 and have never lived in Florida.
This last March, I received a parking citation from Miami-Dade County, Florida for "RESTRICTED OR IMPROPER PARKING" on 02/12/2018. Somehow, they found my TX license plate number for one of my vehicles.
The first problem is, neither I nor any of my vehicles has been in Florida since 2015. In 2015, I was in the panhandle of Florida. I have never been in Miami. Secondly, the citation indicates the offending vehicle as a black 4-door Volkswagen. But my vehicle with that license plate number is not a black Volkswagen, but rather a tan Hyundai.
After receiving the citation, I contacted the Miami-Dade County Clerk office and explained to a lady there that I was not there and that it wasn't my vehicle. She stated that the officer must have made a mistake and that it would be taken care of.
Well, a couple months later, I received the first of three(so far) mailings from a collection agency, indicated that the matter had been turned over to them. I immediately contacted them and explained the same facts to them. The lady there said to write "disputed" on the letter and send it, along with my documentation to them", which I did. I sent them a copy of my Texas auto registration, which clearly indicates my license plate number and make and model of my Hyundai vehicle. However, I have subsequently received two more letters from them demanding payment. It's as if they don't care whether the citation is legal, or not.
I also contacted, by email, Pam Bondi's Florida Attorney General office and detailed to them what is going on. I did speak to one man there the first time I called them, but have not heard anything back from my emails. The man with whom I spoke agreed that something seemed fishy about this matter.
My suspicion is that there is some sort of racket going on, in which they attempt to collect money on the basis of fraudulent parking citations. I hope that I'm incorrect and that it was simply a mistake. But somehow, they got my license plate number and found my mailing address and sent me the citation.
Free Parking is a major factor in making America Great.
I think its just as likely that a Texas car that was tan and not yours got a ticket, and the written ticket was illegible, so the wrong license plate number was written.
Mistakes happen.
But the collection apparatus doesn’t give a crap, even when you send them your registration, proving that the ticket is incorrect.
Once they have a license number, even if out of state, today’s connected computers make it easy for them to track you down.
The collection apparatus counts on most people being unable (distance, work, etc) to show up in Court with evidence. And, it otherwise ignores you once a collection demand has been made.
I think its that way in a lot of states.
“But my vehicle with that license plate number is not a black Volkswagen, but rather a tan Hyundai.”
That’s it. If you could prove that in documentation, the better. Here in L.A, accident and traffic ticket lawyers are cheap and you just pay them a small amount. I’ve been ticketed 7 times this year alone (so far), and I’ve beaten every one of them (well, my lawyer did LOL). The LA Traffic office is full of crooks too...
Well, I have already proved it by the documentation I sent them, i.e., my Texas auto registration. What more evidence do they need that the citation is incorrect?
I used to think collection agencies were legitimate businesses. In receent years learned that collection agencies are rife with criminals. For the 1st 10 years of having my phone number I kept getting calls from collection agencies for someone who presumably had the number before me. If I bothered to tell them that they either hung up and sold it down the food chain to creepier firms, or didn’t believe me and kept calling. They kept calling for ‘maria’. I was always tempted to tell them I go by ‘mario’ now and if they want their parts back they should repossess them. I’d be happy to see the whole industry sued out of existence and all participants given a singapore style caning.
The error was presumably with the police. I’ll guess that by showing your registration it only strengthened their case since your registration matches the erroneous info from the police. They get paid by the police so they will probably only care what their claim is.
If they sent you anything in the mail, report it in writing to the post office as mail fraud - and send a copy to the city (county?) attorney and to the collection agency. While you are at it, why not contact the Texas attorney general, as well. After all, the crime against you occurred in Texas.
It’s extortion, pure and simple.
Had a similar situation with a bridge toll fee from the San Mateo Bridge in SF. A car that had its license plate cover obscuring its true identity. The cover hid the bottom of the I so they ticketed my husband because his license plate was the same one only with the letter T.
We tried everything, DMV, CHP, the bridge toll company. My husband even changed out his license plate for a new one. That did not help because the former plate was still in their system and it was still connected to his name.
After 4-5 months and more than 20 violations, I had finally had enough. We contacted our local CA Assemblyman. I went in with the stack of violations, all the letters I had written, the picture of his former license plate (different type of car as well) the picture of the offending car with its license plate, along with documentation of phone calls and correspondence connected with my attempts to resolve the issue. The staff was mortified what we were going through. They contacted the Toll Bridge Company and we have not had any issues since then.
I recommend that you contact the Miami City Council or Mayors office. If you can get someone to listen to your situation perhaps that will get your situation resolved. If that falls on deaf ears, then go to your Senator or House member and see if they can resolve it.
you’re wasting time with little people. Contact your state representative. They’re always looking for stuff to investigate to make political points.
Are you able to say where you live, roughly?
Florida - America’s Banana Republic
Never respond to a collection agency. They are trolls. Respond, and they will keep coming back—every time you talk to them, you are resetting the clock—literally.
Ignore them and they will go away.
Probably a mail scam and not even from Florida.
Florida - America’s Banana Republic
***************
That’s South Florida. Infested with vermin. Most native Floridians have moved to North Florida. It’s bad down there.
I did contact the Texas Attorney General Office. No help there, as I received this email response:
“Thank you for your recent email. We appreciate your contacting the Office of the Attorney General.
Please understand the role of this office is to advise and represent state entities and interests as specified in the Texas Government Code. Under Texas law, the Office of the Attorney General is prohibited from providing legal advice, analysis or representation to private individuals.
This office does not have jurisdiction on out-of-state issues or over municipalities.
You may wish to discuss your legal issue with a private attorney. Although the State Bar of Texas does not provide direct legal services, represent individuals in legal matters or maintain a list of pro bono attorneys, their Lawyer Referral Information Service (LRIS) can refer you to a lawyer in Texas with appropriate expertise. The lawyer will charge you an initial consultation fee of $20 for the first 30 minutes of his or her time. After that, additional charges should be determined by an agreement between you and your attorney. The LRIS can be reached at (800) 252-9690 or (512) 463-1463. You may also access the online attorney referral service via the following link to their website: www.texasbar.com/AM/Template.cfm?Section=LRIS_Online_Referral_Form.
Again, thank you for writing.
Sincerely,
Tiffany Henry
Constituent Affairs Division
Office of the Attorney General of Texas”
“Probably a mail scam and not even from Florida.”
Oh,it’s most definitely from Florida, and it is from Miami-Dade County. Miami-Dade County has a website on which you can input your citation number and it will display the citation information. That is how I found out that the citation lists the offending vehicle as a black Volkswagen.
“The error was presumably with the police. I’ll guess that by showing your registration it only strengthened their case since your registration matches the erroneous info from the police. They get paid by the police so they will probably only care what their claim is.”
But my registration does NOT match the info from the police. The police citation says the vehicle was a black Volkswagen. My registration proves that my car is a tan Hyundai.
“Are you able to say where you live, roughly?”
As I said in my original post, I live in Texas, specifically East Texas. I have lived in Texas since 1972.
“you’re wasting time with little people. Contact your state representative.”
Agree. When we a couple issues that the local government offices couldn’t handle we went to our representatives. One was that our passports weren’t showing up as promised, which we needed for a cruise. We contacted the local people who handled passports. Lots of promises and sympathy, but no passports.
We called our rep’s office in DC. The passports showed up the next afternoon, over-nighted. The like to make constituents happy for the next election.
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