Iraq Vet Trapped In Kafkaesque Parking Ticket Nightmare

Imagine you've spent months fighting in Iraq, surrounded by hostile locals who don't want you there, and ignored by the folks at home who can't bother paying attention to what our government is doing with their $845 billion mission. You've finally returned from that sunstroke-inducing hell, the experience of which will forever haunt and partially define your life. And how are you welcomed back into civilian life? With a Kafkaesque journey into parking ticket hell.

Marine and Iraq war veteran Mike Godoy and his wife Amy have received a bill of $1,794.80 for more than ten unpaid parking tickets and fines on ~~their~~ someone else's UPS truck. The driver of that UPS truck told Fox that he receives one or two tickets a day. But because the officer issuing the tickets has sloppy handwriting when noting the UPS license plate number, making what should be a JY look like a JX, the Godoys have been sent the bill. The JX corresponds with a car that Mike used to own and got rid of in 2007. Although the plates were destroyed, the listing and the connection to Mike remain in the state computer.

So Mike brought this evidence, proving he has nothing to do with the car in violation, to a Judge—certainly this confusion could easily be fixed: "I brought the receipt for those [10] tickets that were turned in to judge and he said, 'Not sufficient evidence,'" Mike said. Then later, Mike received six more tickets in the mail for the UPS truck. But this time, that same Judge agreed to dismiss them, but refused to do anything to overturn his previous ruling. But hey, that's how it goes with the Court—it receives you when you come, and it dismisses you when you make rational arguments to dismiss parking tickets that aren't yours.

"We are a young couple trying to make it and I am constantly taking off from working trying to handle these tickets that aren't even mine," Mike said. His wife Amy was even more pragmatic: "I'm worried that its going to ruin our credit. We could lose our house because of all of this." Sure, it is not necessary to accept everything as true—one must only accept it as necessary. But at this point, wouldn't anyone rather turn into a cockroach then deal with this crap?

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By Ben Yakas in News on November 10, 2010 3:21 PM

Comments [rss]

potsmoker

a receipt from the DMV that the plates were turned in should be good enough. the "judges" just a charade, they are adminsitrative noobies who are there as rubberstamping figureheads to get revenue for the city.

they have QUOTAS they are expected to achieve $ results to get ahead at the cost of scrooing people over.

places like the MTA's TAB and Parking violations bureau are facades, people go in there thinking they are in a court ready with their best matlock impersonation only to find themselves in a kangaroo kkkourt.

Cannibal

Ive been trapped in Kafkaesque parking violation situations... horrible terrible nightmare. Thousands and thousands of dollars. It made me consider leaving the car with the keys in in on Myrtle ave and getting on the subway and going home.

boogpowell

Shouldnt a UPS truck have a commercial license plate? It says Godoy's plate corresponds with a car. If Godoy's plate is regular and the UPS plate is commerical, this should make it obvious that it wasnt Godoy. This sounds like a great setting for the show Parking Wars.

jpeditor

"ignored by the folks at home who can't bother paying attention to what our government is doing with their $845 million mission"

written by Ben JACKASS.

Tomorrow is Veterans Day, asshole. You think you could get off your pro-jihad, antiwar soapbox for ONE ARTICLE FOR ONE DAY?

You're a disgraceful excuse for a human. a few hundred thousand soldiers are SHITTING ON YOUR NAME TODAY.

Cannibal

What I recommend in your situation is make a nice smoothie with frozen berries and activia yogurt and a few spoonfulls of benefiber powder. Clears you right out!

jpeditor

Well at least you didn't recommend "liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti..." ( :>)

John Del Signore

WHY DOES BEN YAKAS HATE VETERANS?!

bigbrooklynmike

Kanye?

luke*

If only people could be bothered to pay attention to the state of our educational system, maybe jpeditor would have been able to correctly parse that sentence and realize it was actually supportive of veterans.

PS, anti-war does not mean anti-the people who fight that war. Good luck in your future endeavors, jpeditor. I hope you are identifying yourself as some kind of video or audio editor and not someone who is supposed to edit text.

jpeditor

"PS, anti-war does not mean anti-the people who fight that war."

You mean like... you support firemen you just don't support putting out fires?

And what I edit is none of your business, but "parse this":

You write like a gas-bag and you can go fuck yourself with your useless circumlocution.

Ben "Jackass" doesn't support the troops with that paragraph above any more than you do.

And anyone snarking at Vets on the eve of or on Veterans Day troops by "politely" STABBING THEM IN THE BACK is a first class jerk.

Need a summary?

FUCK OFF.

nice job

"You mean like... you support firemen you just don't support putting out fires?"

this man is a true logician, people.

nice job

jpeditor farted

jpeditor

He who "smelt" it, dealt it.

Petey

When the plate and description on the parking ticket says JX... and its listed as a brown delivery truck, and this guys truck used to be a whatever (anything other than a brown delivery truck), it should be an automatic dismissal, especially when the plates were turned in years ago. File a suit against the city.

jaycjay

Vehicle types on registrations aren't that specific. It wouldn't be "delivery truck" on the ticket, just "truck". And it's long been held that errors in identifying a vehicles color don't void parking tickets, which makes some sense in that very often vehicles are painted without that being reflected on the registration -- and that exactly what a particular color might be called can be a source of confusion.

Jen S

Yeah, or maybe the meter maid is color-blind!

bustachime

I think you meant 845 billion. $845MM for the war would have been like peanuts!

virgilstarkwell

so i guess you read the term 'Kafkaesque' somewhere and thought it sounded cool... tell me, how is this situation at all 'Kafkaesque'?

mcsoxerhoff

Have you ever read The Trial? It's along that same vein.

You may have been confused by the reference to The Metamorphosis at the end of the post though.