Chicago Issues Parking Tickets To Dead Man
It is commonly believed, death brings final peace.
However, some people within the City of Chicago don’t seem to believe this to be the case.
Because, according to the Chicago Tribune’s Problem Solver column, one dead man kept on getting parking tickets four years after he was buried and ten years after he sold the truck the tickets were currently being issued.
Even though his wife had sent copies of her husband’s death certificate, and explained the truck had been sold, the Department of Revenue kept on coming after her for the money.
Finally, the Problem Solver Jon Yates and crew stepped in to get to the bottom of this debacle.
It turns out Chicago Police had been issuing tickets to a B-Truck plate with the same license plate number even though the corpse’s former truck had an F-plate.
In the Trib piece, DOR spokesperson Ed Walsh is quoted as saying this is a training issue for the ticket writers. Of course, while this is true, why isn’t this a training issue for Dept. of Revenue staff who were asked to address this issue by the dead driver’s widow?
One wonders how desperate for money, or stupid or thoughtless people within the Department of Revenue are to allow something like this to happen? It seems to have taken Yates a few phone calls to get this figured out. One would think it would be easier for someone within the DOR to look into this than someone from outside the department. Why did it take the bright glare of the media to force someone within the Department of Revenue to do the right thing here?
This story has a happy ending because they had the full weight of the Chicago Tribune behind them.
How many others are getting screwed by the Department of Revenue who aren’t savvy enough to contact the media?
Make sure and read the full, jaw dropping story, “Problem: A barrage of parking tickets for dead husband’s truck, sold years ago.”
At least it was a Cop and not a PEA.
And it is a shame…that who ever processed those tickets on scene can’t tell the difference between a B and a F plate…
/doh
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With all due respect to tge drparted, the city probably just using recent voting records!
Welcome to the ineptitude of this state. We have different plates with the same number? Don’t believe me? Let’s say you had the following vanity plate: “MY CAR”… Passenger, B-Truck, Handicapped, Motorcycle, Handicapped Motorcycle, America Remembers (“MY C” with vertical “AR”), State House, State Senate, Retired House, and Retired Senate? That’s 10 different Illinois plates, that could be issued to different people, that appear to have the same number!
Out of state police have trouble with IL plates because of this problem. Wait till someone gets falsely accused because they had an all-numeric passenger plate and someone committed a crime with the same number B-truck plate… (Unlikely, but not impossible).
So, to help counteract the problem, Chicago issues a 3-letter plate type that’s supposed to be added to each ticket. Each plate type, including specialty plates, has one. But all trucks, including B-trucks, get have a plate type code of “TRK”…
PEA/DOR guys–explain to me how you write tickets to the following two different plates… B-Truck: “12 345 F” vs. F-Truck: “12345 F”? The Illinois Secretary of State doesn’t prevent these 2 plate types from appearing to have the same number…
B Plate: 12345fB
F Plate: 12345F