A FLORIDA man nearly forked out for a $50 parking ticket after being wrongly accused of leaving his car in a lot for 16 hours – despite not even being there.
The bizarre blunder happened in Fort Myers, where Jason Kafus was sent a citation showing his exact licence plate number.
But there was one major problem – the car in the picture wasn’t his.
“All I see is my license plates, I’m gonna pay it. I’m like, can’t beat the system. They got me, whatever it is,” Kafus told Fox4 reporters.
The ticket claimed Kafus’s vehicle was parked from 9.58am on Friday, August 15, until 2am the following morning.
But Kafus said he was working at the time and couldn’t have been anywhere near the lot.
“I was never in this parking lot at 9:58 in the morning on a Friday. I would’ve been fired,” he said.
It was a colleague who first spotted something was off.
“He said, bro, but your car don’t even look like that. And I’m looking, I’m like, that’s not my vehicle,” Kafus explained.
The ticket showed a black SUV – while Kafus drives a red one.
Despite the mismatch, he nearly paid the fine as the plate number was correct and the fine rises to $70 if unpaid.
“In panic mode, you’re like, oh my god, I just got the ticket,” Kafus said.
“The fact that they try to get you to pay this so fast is almost like they’re putting pressure on you.”
Instead of paying, Kafus appealed and within two days was told the error had been corrected.
“Oh, we’ll attach it to the right vehicle. No further action is required,” he was told.
Jennifer Bell, Marketing Director for Premium Parking, which runs the Lee County-owned lot, said the mix-up was extremely rare.
“In this situation, it is a less than 1 per cent issue where the vehicle that entered had almost identical license plate,” Bell said.
Two SUVs with nearly identical plates entered the same car park that day, triggering the system to match Kafus’s plate with the wrong vehicle.
“The likelihood of that ever happening on the same location with the same type of car is unbelievably rare, less than 1 per cent,” Bell said.
She stressed that none of the cameras were faulty and that Premium Parking was already voiding the ticket before Kafus appealed.
“We were in the process of issuing a void to send to the client and the customer before he brought up the issue to us,” she said.
No one will be fined for the error, Bell confirmed.
Kafus urged other drivers to double-check their tickets.
“Start looking at the time first, because you know if you was in that particular place at that particular time,” he said. “Secondly, look at the vehicle.”
Bell said drivers can appeal through the company’s website if they believe they’ve been wrongly ticketed.
How to fight a parking ticket
You can avoid being ticketed by following all posted laws and ordinances, but sometimes mistakes are made
Like any form of citation, parking tickets are preventable by reading and obeying posted signage. However, when visiting a new city, or state, or in a hurry, things can be missed and mistakes are made.
Suddenly there’s a ticket you weren’t prepared to pay for. If the ticket is a surprise to you, there are a few things you can do to help your case when appealing a parking ticket.
- Carefully read the ticket. Look for errors like incorrect street names, license plate numbers, vehicle make and model, time and date, etc. Errors would then make the ticket invalid.
- Take photos. Of the vehicle in the parking space, lack of signage, or other vehicles that weren’t cited for performing the same parking job. If the ticket involves parking too close to something like a fire hydrant, a photo showing a reasonable distance would help your case. Make sure metadata with the time and date are accessible. Signs that are obstructed by trees, or are on bent posts, or aren’t “obvious” are great things to photograph, too.
- Make sure the statute that was violated is listed on the ticket. If not listed, the ticket is not valid.
- Promptly follow the appeal instructions on the ticket. All legitimate tickets will have directions for appeal. Waiting until the very last moment weakens your argument and can result in late fees.
- When in court, avoid these phrases as they reduce your credibility and weaken your argument: I didn’t know the law; I was on my way to move my car; I can’t afford this ticket; I’ve been doing this for years; or I checked with the parking officer, who said it was OK.
- Contact a lawyer. If you’re running into roadblocks and feel stuck, it may be best to reach out to a traffic lawyer in your area. Many have free case consultations.
Source: Reader’s Digest
