School parking ticket, but wrong plate number... What do?

[N1rve]

I would ignore it until something comes in the mail or on your student account (if anything).

Usually they will track your vehicle down by the VIN through the DMV and send you a letter.

Since your VIN was "unreadable" and your plate is wrong, whoever has that plate will be sent a letter and there's nothing really tying the ticket to your car except Subaru BRZ.

Also, since your parking permit has no really PII (personal identifiable information) on it except the method of purchase, it is extremely hard to tie it to someone. I highly doubt they will spend the extra work to pull the records for the payment over a $48 dollar fine.

All in all, it's hard to trace it back to you since they documented it wrong, and you could possibly fight it since they documented it wrong. I wouldn't worry until you get a letter because I don't think you could pay it yet anyways?

[Token11b]

Protip: most campus police are actually real police officers.

Another piece of information. That sign with the long descriptions on what you can and can't do? They put those there for a reason. At my place of employment we have a sign that says "it is unlawful to posses any guns, drugs, weapons, ammunition, explosive devices, alcohol on state grounds." That is a small excerpt that it posted on multiple signs as you drive in. We periodically do searches of visitors vehicles and we'll find some of these things in their vehicles and when confronted about it they'll complain because they didn't want to take the extra 10seconds to read the sign that even has a penal code.

Ignorance of the law is not a valid excuse.

[ImAdopted]

im not sure about the US but in Canada(im sure its not much difference) if the ticket is not correctly completed then your ticket is invalid and you do not have to pay

[Rican_D]

Bottom line, if this situation was taken to court, it would be automatically dismissed. All information needs to be correct and matching on citations.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[slipdog]

Originally Posted by Rican_D

Bottom line, if this situation was taken to court, it would be automatically dismissed. All information needs to be correct and matching on citations.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

This guy is right. If YOUR license plate number is not on the ticket it is not your ticket.

[extrashaky]

Originally Posted by Rican_D

Bottom line, if this situation was taken to court, it would be automatically dismissed. All information needs to be correct and matching on citations.

Have you ever appealed a parking citation at a university?

I have. It wasn't court. It was a "parking review panel" made up of a couple of student representatives, a couple of faculty representatives and a representative of the Dean of Students, who was in charge of student disciplinary activity. The parking "officer" and I both presented our cases to this deliberative body, they discussed it, and then they rendered a decision. If it had gone against me, I would have either had to pay the fine or drop out of school, since the school would put a stop on my registration until I paid up.

There was no appeal to a real court. In order to go to real court, I would have had to sue to compel them to allow my registration. But that would have been a waste of time and money because I would have lost. The ticket was not for a violation of a city ordinance, but a breach of a contractual condition to which I had agreed by attending school there and parking on their property.

It's likely OP's school is the same, in which case a parking review panel would be unlikely to dismiss it. He would argue the typo defense, and they would say, "What do you think this is, a court of law? It's obviously the same car. Pay the fine or prepare to do something else with your time other than classes next semester."

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by extrashaky

Have you ever appealed a parking citation at a university?

I have. It wasn't court. It was a "parking review panel" made up of a couple of student representatives, a couple of faculty representatives and a representative of the Dean of Students, who was in charge of student disciplinary activity. The parking "officer" and I both presented our cases to this deliberative body, they discussed it, and then they rendered a decision. If it had gone against me, I would have either had to pay the fine or drop out of school, since the school would put a stop on my registration until I paid up.

There was no appeal to a real court. In order to go to real court, I would have had to sue to compel them to allow my registration. But that would have been a waste of time and money because I would have lost. The ticket was not for a violation of a city ordinance, but a breach of a contractual condition to which I had agreed by attending school there and parking on their property.

It's likely OP's school is the same, in which case a parking review panel would be unlikely to dismiss it. He would argue the typo defense, and they would say, "What do you think this is, a court of law? It's obviously the same car. Pay the fine or prepare to do something else with your time other than classes next semester."

Even if it were a municipality that issued the ticket the common response of "it is messed up it is no good" doesn't always fly. Parking bylaws are set by the city, town, or county depending on the location and are not all inclusive across the whole country or even individual States. You would have to know the conditions of the bylaw that was broken since some do not cancel tickets for inaccurate information. Now in this case be pretty hard for a municipality to follow up without a VIN or plate number.

[EdBoy]

Whoever wrote the ticket has the information incorrect. Ignore until something happens.
It will be dismissed if escalated any further due to wrong info

[extrashaky]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Now in this case be pretty hard for a municipality to follow up without a VIN or plate number.

In this case it's not the municipality. It's a school. Even large schools tend to be rather small communities, and OP has a somewhat more distinctive vehicle than your average mom's-hand-me-down Camry. All this really takes is for the meter maid who wrote the ticket to see his vehicle again after the tag comes back with no match to the car, and they have the correct information to find his name and cancel his class registration.

I agree that probably won't happen. But having dealt with university parking nazis myself, I wouldn't make that assumption. My next course of action would be to read through the school's parking regulations to find out what can and will happen when someone doesn't pay a parking ticket, then decide whether it was worth the risk not to pay it.

If the consequences of miscalculating don't look too bad, I might blow it off myself. I got a ticket on my last day at Auburn, after they had nothing to hold over me. I gladly ignored it.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by extrashaky

In this case it's not the municipality. It's a school. Even large schools tend to be rather small communities, and OP has a somewhat more distinctive vehicle than your average mom's-hand-me-down Camry. All this really takes is for the meter maid who wrote the ticket to see his vehicle again after the tag comes back with no match to the car, and they have the correct information to find his name and cancel his class registration.

I agree that probably won't happen. But having dealt with university parking nazis myself, I wouldn't make that assumption. My next course of action would be to read through the school's parking regulations to find out what can and will happen when someone doesn't pay a parking ticket, then decide whether it was worth the risk not to pay it.

If the consequences of miscalculating don't look too bad, I might blow it off myself. I got a ticket on my last day at Auburn, after they had nothing to hold over me. I gladly ignored it.

I know. That is why I said "even if it were the municipality". Pretty sure the local universities here would hunt you down to the end of the earth for a $50 ticket.

[winstonscifi]

You didn't follow the rules. You got caught. Pay the 48 bucks. That's what a stand-up guy would do.

[StraightOuttaCanadaEh]

Not sure why there's even a discussion. The damn money sucking vampires got the license plate wrong, it's the best day ever. Make that ticket into an airplane and throw that bitch in the river.

[winstonscifi]

Or you could do this: Bring the ticket into the parking official's office. Make sure there are a lot of important people in the room with you. Say that you found this ticket on the ground near your car. Tell them that you're not sure if this ticket is yours. Point out the discrepancies. But say that you are a stand-up guy, and want to do right by the laws on the books. They may say that since you are a stand-up guy, and that you are doing the right thing, and that's what makes this institution work, they will tear up the thing, put it in your record that you are indeed a stand-up guy, and you are now KING FOR A DAY! I mean, if you're going to do the right thing, you might as well get public credit for it! Or, you might just pay the damn 48 bucks because you didn't follow the rules and you got caught. Either way - JUST PAY THE 48 BUCKS!!!!

[BaatLuk]

Does the license plate number on the ticket match yours? If not, it's not your ticket. Even if they reported it to DMV, it wouldn't trace back to you.

Just curious, which school was this? Where are they asking you to send your payment? If payment isn't going to a court or government agency, definitely just toss it.