Posted on 07/10/2008 7:37:36 PM PDT by rawhide
A 44-year-old Arizona man allegedly tried to fool the photo radars that record a vehicle's speed. It worked for a while — until the police caught up with him.
Timothy Welsh allegedly used a permanent marker to change both the 3 and the 9 on his license plate to an 8, so when his vehicle got nabbed for speeding, the ticket was sent to someone else...
At first, Scottsdale Sgt. Jim Butera thought it was a mistake when a Phoenix man called him complaining he had gotten two speeding tickets mailed to him, but he wasn't the one speeding.
When Butera looked at the photo and saw the man making an obscene gesture at the camera he thought, "[we] need to do some more investigating."
"He didn't think it was that big of a deal," Butera told the station. "But he admitted to everything that we accused him of."
Welsh allegedly was going 14 mph over the speed limit and would have had to pay a $175 fine, but now, he's facing a $1,500 fine and up to a year in jail.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Identity theft.
A good argument against speed cameras. Fortunately in Texas speed cameras are illegal.
Throw some mud onto your license plate and you won’t be spending 1 year in jail for forging a plate, idiot!
Does that stop cops from using 'em?
If you are going to change your license plate don’t be arrogant enough to flip off the camera.
Yeah, I'll bet that's what he said. Cops hate that.
I have to admit: I half applaud the guy for it. There’s something about these speed cameras that rubs me the wrong way. Well, for starters, I tend to think speed limits are too low, anyway. Further, the whole idea of employing video surveilance to monitor the flow of citizens is a bit 1984ishs to me.
The guy was pretty clueless in flipping the cop off, but as I say that, I think the fact that the plates ultimately wouldn’t match up with the vehicle registration model (in all likelihood) would have the same net effect.
I guess in that respect, the mud on the license plate is just about the only way to beat the system without facing repercusions.
Red light cameras were recently set up in Amarillo.....all about revenue ! I suspect speed cameras will be next.
What we have today is the result of a series of court decisions handed down in the days when most folks still got around by horse & buggy - decisions granting states broad power to regulate the use of those strange and powerful rich men's contraptions.
While not specifically enumerated as an individual right, it need not be. I don't believe the founders intended to bestow upon government the power to regulate personal travel in the manner or to the extent it is being done today.
"Despite the near-unanimous opposition in the state legislature to the use of speed cameras, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is moving forward on a proposal to deploy photo radar on state highways using federal gas tax funds. Legislation awaiting Governor Rick Perry's signature prohibited only municipalities -- like Marble Falls and Rhome -- from installing automated speeding ticket systems. It was silent on the possibility of a state-run system"
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1848525/posts
A Friend got ticketed for turning on a red on a tough spot that the turn to go that direction to get to the freeway is a quick miss.
So they have a camera there and it sent her a series of pics of her turning as the light hit red.
Her face up close in all the pics.
That is just wrong IMO.
Speeding on purpose is not the same as trying to maneuver in unknown territory.
Hah speaking of big city red light camera traps.
Didnt Eugene just install one or is a speed cam out on some rural area of Eugene?
I drive a WC van and 55 is just fine by me.
It maybe different for sporty cars that can handle the road at higher rates better.
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