Brickbat: I Know You

stevetom.com

When actor Steve Tom got a $490 ticket generated by a red light camera for an illegal turn in Culver City, California, he was certain he wasn't guilty, especially when he saw the ticket wasn't issued to his his vehicle. But the officer who signed off on the ticket insisted it was him because he'd met him before and just knew it was him. Tom tracked down the owner of the vehicle and found they did look quite a bit alike. After local media picked up the story, the police department dropped the ticket.

Comments

[Adans smith]

Nothing to see here,literally.

[straffinrun]

Mornin'. Not much except...$500 for an illegal turn! I got a 50 over the speed limit back in the day and it cost me less than $300.

[Adans smith]

Good morning, I was alluding to the fact that I posted at 5:30 and no one was here. Tonight,Brows and Green Bay on here. Pizza and beer.

[Adans smith]

I guess I was too vague, although, the actor does look a little like Leslie Nielsen.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Well, there's always this. Editing:

"when he saw the ticket wasn't issued to his his vehicle"

[Ken Shultz]

If anybody sees a guy running around naked on 'shrooms next weekend and sexually assaulting the Hermosa Beach surfer statue?

That wasn't me. It was just a guy that looks like me.

[Vapourwear]

Does anybody else hear the government apology crickets?

Oh, there they are now!

*preet, preet, preet*

[DenverJ]

Very nice

[Gene]

This should be grounds for dismissal.

[UnCivilServant]

But they did dismiss the ticket.

/deliberately missing the point.

[Radioactive]

DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?....apparently not...

[UnCivilServant]

"DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?"

"No."

"Good" *runs off*

[Tom Bombadil]

This story makes no sense.

A red light camera catches the illegal car including the license plate.
The ticket is then sent to the car owner based on the address linked to the plate.

How in the hell did Steve Tom get the ticket in the first place?

Are you telling me that the officer who "signed off" on the ticket looked at the photo, said "hey, that's Steve Tom". Then looked up the address for the plate and said "hey, that's not Steve Tom", and then went to some other database and looked up Steve Tom's address and manually mailed him the ticket? And all because it was one guy out of 100,000 that he thought he recognized?

My theory is Tom is boning the guy's wife.

[UnCivilServant]

I followed the link and the link in the link to pick up as much information as I could without actually going out of my way.

Here's the detail - the vehicle the camera snapped was an out-of-state plate with a registration in St Louis. This probably kicks out of the automatic system for manual processing (Government computers have a heck of a time coordinating when they're under the same government, their system for interstate registry information probably isn't hooked into the red light camera processing system). The manual processing twerp failed to follow procedure of running the plate because the driver resembled an actor and jumped to the conclusion that it was in fact the actor driving.

[Tom Bombadil]

Thanks for the effort. I only linked to Warp 1.

[Libertarian]

Because, really, how many clean-shaven white-haired guys can there be?

Personal note: I NEVER get away with anything. I'm the guy who gets a ticket for a burned out tail light while my friends get pulled over doing 100mph and get a warning. However, driving to the Keys once, going through the toll "booths" that are really just a bank of cameras that take your plate's pic and send you a bill for the toll in the mail, I had a couple bikes on a rack the covered my plate. I never got a bill. It's probably the proudest moment of my life.

[John C. Randolph]

I know a guy who was working on a construction site in DC, and on his last day at the site, he found a boot on his truck. He took a six-foot wrecking bar out of his truck, snapped the hasp of the lock off, threw the boot in the back of the truck, and drove home to West Virginia. He got threatening letters a few times over the next year or so which he ignored.

-jcr

[Libertarian]

"Tom tracked down the owner of the vehicle and found they did look quite a bit alike."

Just to beat a dead horse, how the heck does a private citizen use a license plate number to track down somebody?

[UnCivilServant]

Re-reading the available information, it looks like they may have sent the ticket to him with the registration address associated with the plate on the ticket (though evidently not the envelope)

[Libertarian]

You're doing yeoman's work this morning for those of us too lazy to read. Thank you!

[Rich]

Alternate ending:

After local media picked up the story, the police department dropped the ticket sent the other guy a ticket, too.

[Radioactive]

and then shot his dog...

[Jake Stone]

490 fucking bucks for an illegal turn? Effing California, man....

[Jimbo]

My right turn infraction was $565 after all the fees were paid. Didn't come to a complete stop, so the camera nailed me. That was in 2013, so it may be more expensive now.
Told my wife we are leaving as soon as the kids are out of college. If she doesn't want to come, I told her I'll miss her.

[Jimbo]

In case it's not clear, I live in CA.

[Jake Stone]

Damn.... What a crock. Condolences

[Bra Ket]

Yeah they jack up the fees on those cameras every time there's a budget shortfall. I guess underfunded pension systems lead them to somehow realize the value of pedestrian lives is higher than they previously had thought.

I believe the net for those tickets is about ten percent after they pay for the costs of issuing them. More of a jobs program.

[Astra]

Our car was ticked in Maryland for running a red light. After looking at the time stamp, we realized that it was the state inspector driving the car at the time. MD didn't rescind** but the auto shop paid the bill.

**They get away with this by assessing $$ but no points to the driver.

[Astra]

The car was ticketed. We were ticked.

[Bra Ket]

Those people all look the same am I right?

[jackrose]

nice post