On February 28, I wrote about a notice I received in the mail, admonishing me for failing to appear in court for a parking ticket I received on January 23 in Perth Amboy, New Jersey….along with fining me $10 for my negligence and setting a new date for me to show up.
The problem? I was not in Perth Amboy, New Jersey on that date. Or any other date anywhere near that date.
I called the phone number it provided and, based on the conversation I had with a seemingly indifferent person there, I decided to just pay up and be done with it. But several people (including commenter Zeke) encouraged me not to just shrug my shoulders and leave it at that.
So, yesterday, I called the court to ask if a copy of the ticket could be emailed or faxed to me. I was told that could be done, but not at this number…and was given a different number to call.
The person at that different number told me I had to call the court.
When I pointed out that it was the court who told me to call her number, and therefore I was going around in circles, she transferred me to another number, at (I assume) a different office within the court building.
This new person was not available, so I left a message explaining what had happened and that the ticket had to have been a mistake. That was late yesterday afternoon.
About a half hour ago, I received a callback from the woman whom I left the message with.
She apologized for not getting back to me sooner…and then informed me that the description of the vehicle written on the ticket did not match the color or model of my car, I was right about there being a mistake, and that she was having the ticket dismissed. She also promised to send me notification of the dismissal (but I\’ll call tomorrow anyway, just to make sure).
Bottom line? A happy ending.
Would that everything else in my (and your) life resolved this quickly and easily.
