Florida man gets parking ticket 7 years after violation
TAMPA, Fla. December 10 2019 The city of Tampa parking division is working on a list this holiday season, and you don’t want to be on it. The city is flagging unpaid citations – no matter how long ago – and mailing out bills.
Just ask Joe Reeser. He says he was stunned to receive a bill for a citation dated 87 months ago.
“I don’t really know if this is a real ticket, if I ever paid the ticket, if I ever got the ticket,” Reeser said.
He called the city and says he was told his name was flagged in a parking system review to identify unpaid tickets.
He calls this unfair.
“The policy is wrong,” he said. “I don’t know how many other people they’re dinging on this. What’s to say that tomorrow they don’t send me something from 15 years ago?”
He paid the $40 citation and then turned to Better Call Behnken to get answers.
City officials say they changed from a manual to an automated system around 2012 and some old citations fell through the cracks.
They reviewed Reeser’s situation and said their records show they originally sent the citation in 2012 to Reeser’s finance company because the vehicle was a lease.
Reeser says if that’s true, no one forwarded that citation to him.
“I’ve never heard of this before now,” he said. “And now, so much time has passed, there is no recourse, no proof either way.”
WFLA
