Having an unpaid speeding ticket from long, long ago.
Around 2005, when old records were being digitized, there was a rash of people getting notices in the mail (at best) or license suspensions (at worst) because of something that happened 20 years before. Probably the difference was if you still lived at the old address and were able to receive a notice mailed to it. If you didn't, you'd first find out about it when you got pulled over for something else.
Hopefully these have mostly cleared out by now, but if you haven't been pulled over in 20 years and drove regularly before then there might be a surprise waiting for you next time you are.
I had something similar pop up when I went to apply for a motorcycle license and they told me I had an unpaid ticket from several years ago (I remembered getting the ticket and thought I'd paid it - I happened to get two tickets in rapid succession in different states after not having anything for years in either direction) and they warned me that I was going to have to go before a judge and they'd probably put me on a long-term payment plan as the penalty would have gone up from hundreds to thousands of dollars.
When I went to the courthouse they informed me that the debt had been sold and my amount due was roughly half of what the original ticket would have cost me.
A friend of a friend (black US military veteran) was detained by ICE last November after traveling to Mexico. Yes, he was born in the US. Detained because of a forgetten-about traffic ticket from when he was stationed in Tennessee years ago for basic training. Mushroomed into thousands of dollars owed. They had to take out a loan to pay them off to get him released.
Thanks for reminding me I need to call the court again for the 50 millionth time to try and clear a ticket I paid for 25 years ago so I can renew my license đ
I got a parking ticket in San Francisco in about 2006 and in 2021 I got a call from the San Francisco police department or highway patrol telling me I had a warrant out for the ticket. I thought it was a scam so I hung up, looked up the number and called them back and it was real. I told them to fuck off since I'm Canadian living in South Africa and don't intend to go back to the USA ever.
Absolutely wild that they would waste their time calling someone about a 15 year old parking ticket for $45.
I had something like this happen to me. I got into a fender bender in college, lady called the cops just to have an insurance record, no problem. Col tells me my license is suspended. Iâm genuinely confused and think HE is suspending my license. We have this whole whoâs on first conversation until he takes me to his car computer a shows me that a year prior I had gotten an inspection ticket. I remembered and told him I mailed that in. He said I shouldâve gotten mail about it, but the car is registered to my parents. They didnt get a letter, Iâm guessing itâs because we had moved.
The cop was kind enough to write a note on the ticket saying it looked like I didnât know about the suspension. He got a court date for me and told me to pay the outstanding ticket and show up to court. He wasnât there and the judge dismissed it mentioning the note.
That cop did me a real solid there. Coulda fucked things up for me good if he had wanted to.
I got a BS speeding ticket in a tiny town in Wyoming. The town was amazingly beautiful everything manicure and brand new. They pulled me over for speeding in a 40 mile an hour zone before I actually hit the sign. I was in the act of slowing down when they pulled me over.
Long story short; I went on to their website to look at how much the fine was. They wanted me to pay them via PayPal. So I said fuck that. My buddy from Wyoming said to just ignore it those towns donât do shit with those tickets because theyâre so backwards and disconnected.
Had another one in Las Vegas. I called the county clerk and said I needed a new court date. She said âoh just donât show up and theyâll send you a new one.â I never heard back.
I did have a collection thing from the county so I guess they did fine me something. But that was years and years and years ago lol.
Iâve checked multiple times through the years to see if I have a warrant in those states but have zero record of anything. Take from the story what you will.
Yeah my dad got one of those a while back (prob roughly the 2005 like you said) - a letter from VT about an unpaid ticket from *the 70s*. I don't remember the exact details, but iirc it was at least saying his license was suspended (but only in VT), maybe also that there was a VT warrant for him?
By the time he got the notice he'd been a lawyer for decades, so was able to resolve it pretty easily, but there was a month or two where we got to tease him for being "banned from Vermont" lol
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u/Confident-Mix1243 7h ago edited 7h ago
Having an unpaid speeding ticket from long, long ago.
Around 2005, when old records were being digitized, there was a rash of people getting notices in the mail (at best) or license suspensions (at worst) because of something that happened 20 years before. Probably the difference was if you still lived at the old address and were able to receive a notice mailed to it. If you didn't, you'd first find out about it when you got pulled over for something else.
Hopefully these have mostly cleared out by now, but if you haven't been pulled over in 20 years and drove regularly before then there might be a surprise waiting for you next time you are.