Oct 5, 2009 8:14 pm US/Pacific
Call Kurtis: Violation!
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ―
We've done a number of investigations about Northern Californians, getting parking tickets from the City of L.A., when they weren't even there.
This ticket came from the City of Oakland. The car ticketed was parked at a military base in New York. So, why couldn't the owner get it dismissed?
"You know you weren't there but how do you prove you weren't there?" asks Robert Swensen, Folsom resident.
Robert's son, John, got a $35 parking ticket from the City of Oakland in March. The citation shows the expired meter violation happened in August 2008 on Franklin Street in Oakland.
But his car was parked three thousand miles away at Fort Drum, New York.
"They have the correct license plate but the wrong car," says Robert.
Robert shows us photos of the car, covered in snow, in New York. It's a black Hyundai. But the car ticketed... a four door, gray Jaguar.
"I'd like to have a Jaguar, he'd be thrilled," says Robert.
While John is fighting a war in Afghanistan, Robert is fighting his ticket, back at home. He sent a copy of the title, showing the car is clearly a Hyundai and not a Jaguar to Oakland's Parking Enforcement.
He thought it was all cleared up. Five months later, this showed up.
"Lo and behold, I just recently got a collection agency. The City of Oakland sent it to a collection agency," says Robert.
The payment ballooned to $118!
Robert says he called the City of Oakland many times but was never able to talk to a live person. He also emailed them but got no response.
"Truthfully frustrated in the bureaucracy," says Robert.
And frankly, we were, too. We put in a series of calls to Oakland's Parking Enforcement Director, Noel Pinto. When we didn't hear back, we got in touch with a parking enforcement employee, who told us, the wrong car was ticketed.
Bad handwriting changed a "u" into a "v"... sending the ticket to John instead of that Jaguar owner. After more than half a dozen phone calls, we finally got a call back from Noel Pinto.
He tells us "no matter how hard they try, there will be some exceptions that something goes wrong"... especially with handwritten citations.
He says "this is just one case out of the 525,000 citations they issue every year."
Robert finally got a letter from the City of Oakland, stating his son's citation has been dismissed.
"Better late than never," says Robert.
Oakland's Parking Director, Noel Pinto, says they plan to use more handheld computers for ticket-writing to cut down on handwriting mistakes. He says if you get a ticket you think is a mistake, contact his department.
Although that didn't seem to work for our viewer or even us when we called him directly.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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