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Rants and Stuff / Life refuses to be boring
« on: June 10, 2004, 05:40:37 PM »
So I grabbed the mail just now, and in it was a rather official-looking thing from the city court. Hmm, I thought. Maybe it's another receipt for the traffic ticket I paid. See, I got pulled over on May 7th, for expired registration. Got my ticket, which said I had to take it to the court and pay after at least 10 days but no more than 20 days.
So we got the registration renewed on the car, (which is another story) and on day 11 of the ticket time I went and paid the ticket. All is well.
Until I open up the thing from the court today, which is a notice saying that my payment is delinquent, and that if I don't pay by June 20th, they'll put out a warrant for my arrest. Fu-un.
So I call up the court, and go through a nice recorded system to get an operator who I explain this to. "I'm not showing it's been paid," she says, when I read the case number off the notice. "Maybe I misunderstood what I needed to do," I say. "I thought all I needed was to go into the court and up to the desk and pay for the ticket."
"Yes, that's all you need to do."
"But that's exactly what I did," I tell her. "I have my receipt right here."
"Oh," she says, and asks me for the number on the reciept.
"Hmm," she tells me after a minute of computer-searching. "You only got one ticket that day, right? You didn't get pulled over twice." "No, it was just once." (I think I'd remember getting pulled over twice, as traumatic an experience getting pulled over is for someone who never gets in trouble.) "Well, it looks like it got entered in twice."
Then she says she'll take care of it for me, and I shouldn't worry. "So they're not going to issue a warrant for my arrest?" I ask, feeling slightly stupid. "No, they won't," she assures me, in a tone of voice that suggests she thinks my question was stupid too.
She can think it's stupid all she wants. I don't want an arrest on my record because some stupid computer made up a traffic violation for me. Try explaining to a future boss that you got arrested once for a traffic ticket that you already paid and see how quickly they believe you. I mean, I love computers. But I don't trust 'em.
Even my days off can't be boring.
So we got the registration renewed on the car, (which is another story) and on day 11 of the ticket time I went and paid the ticket. All is well.
Until I open up the thing from the court today, which is a notice saying that my payment is delinquent, and that if I don't pay by June 20th, they'll put out a warrant for my arrest. Fu-un.
So I call up the court, and go through a nice recorded system to get an operator who I explain this to. "I'm not showing it's been paid," she says, when I read the case number off the notice. "Maybe I misunderstood what I needed to do," I say. "I thought all I needed was to go into the court and up to the desk and pay for the ticket."
"Yes, that's all you need to do."
"But that's exactly what I did," I tell her. "I have my receipt right here."
"Oh," she says, and asks me for the number on the reciept.
"Hmm," she tells me after a minute of computer-searching. "You only got one ticket that day, right? You didn't get pulled over twice." "No, it was just once." (I think I'd remember getting pulled over twice, as traumatic an experience getting pulled over is for someone who never gets in trouble.) "Well, it looks like it got entered in twice."
Then she says she'll take care of it for me, and I shouldn't worry. "So they're not going to issue a warrant for my arrest?" I ask, feeling slightly stupid. "No, they won't," she assures me, in a tone of voice that suggests she thinks my question was stupid too.
She can think it's stupid all she wants. I don't want an arrest on my record because some stupid computer made up a traffic violation for me. Try explaining to a future boss that you got arrested once for a traffic ticket that you already paid and see how quickly they believe you. I mean, I love computers. But I don't trust 'em.
Even my days off can't be boring.