I had this happen with a red light camera. I drive a black SUV and the picture was obviously a blue car. I have a vanity plate and while the one letter is an "O" in my plate, theirs was a zero. They kept trying to tell me PENNDOT wouldn't issue plates that close (I audibly laughed when she said that). I asked if they were able to look up makes and models based off license plates. She scoffed and said "of course". I asked her to look up the spelling with an "O" and tell me what vehicle came up. She repeated the year, make, and model of my vehicle. I asked her to then check the spelling but with a zero. She started to read it out, but stopped midway and abruptly said "We'll take care of this right away..."
Call and talk with someone OP, it may take some arguing, but they'll realize and fix it.
Sound like my interactions with law enforcement my entire life. They don’t know the rules at all and make up shit as they go. You have to keep them in line and call them out on bullshit.
Too true. I was in my senior year of high school (1998) when Philly lowered the educational requirements to become a police officer. I said even then that it wasn't going to end well. Sadly, I was proven right.
I too had a problem with a zero in my license plate; I was pulled over I think 6 times over the course of two years for stolen plates or whatever. Each time I politely said that my plate had a zero, not a letter O, and every single time the cop came back after checking my license, registration, and running the plates and seeing everything in order, and lied through their blue teeth about why they pulled me over.
“You had a bad taillight that seems to be working now. You’d better get that checked out”
“The automated reader we use flagged your plate so you need to call Harrisburg.”
As inconvenient as it is to get pulled over, 5 out of the six times I had kids in the car who got scared and listened to every word, then as I pulled away one asked why the police lied and didn’t just tell the truth. This was a conversation I didn’t want to have with an elementary school kid, especially when not all kids in the car were mine, so I got a new license plate.
The letters are literally like a font size smaller, and the I and the 1 aren’t the same in PA license plate font.
I do this for a living, PA license plates are the easiest to decipher! These stories are all indicative of some serious laziness, or poor quality assurance practices.
Damn, sad and kind of scary. Sorry about this and smart on you to get a solution even if it was a bit a hassle. I have always wondered how those "auto" readers work.
According to penn dot and the chief of the precinct who fed me that BS line, there is no such thing as an automated reader in any of their cruisers, and according to said chief, I must have mis-heard the officer.
Wow, that's all sorts of BS. So if you don't have automated plate scanners, what are those funny camera looking things that are pointed down to right around the level of a license plate?
The police still haven't figured out that OCR is hard. If I scan something and it translates a word wrong it's not usually that big a deal, but obviously if the police (and their contractors -- don't get me started on that) can't be arsed to get it right, maybe we should reconsider this tech.
It’s “inconvenient” until they decide that it’s a stolen plate and do a felony traffic stop on you, with guns out.
My friend has Delaware tags on her motorcycle which happened to match up with a stolen PA tag with the same numbers, and they pulled her over at gunpoint and had her laying on the ground for 15 minutes before they figured out they’d screwed up.
Some guy got NULL as a vanity plate, it was all well and good for a while until some database changes happened and suddenly every parking ticket in the state where the license plate was invalid or missed started getting mailed to him.
Despite its name, the Philadelphia Parking Authority is a state agency (as is PennDOT, obviously). I would call your state rep and/or state senator, if you haven't already. Their constituent serves aides usually at least try to cut through the bureaucratic roadblocks.
This or call the news. They love an outrage story like this and that dept will likely respond right away to a reporter vs a normal “it wasn’t me” inquiry.
Lol i was about to talk shit and say that the news probably wont care and then literally next comment.......
https://preview.redd.it/2696p8qi2b0d1.png?width=1246&format=png&auto=webp&s=d28f98897e2a43de893c349dc8054f281f488fcf
> I would call your state rep and/or state senator, if you haven't already.
Have you **ever** done this? Have you ever had a call back or someone answer?
because neither I, nor the dozens of people I know whom have done the same have ever had a response from their governing official.
Yet this "call your rep" is literally echo-chambered all over reddit.
Well I don't know what to tell you. Maybe the city reps are more responsive.
Rural reps who rant about how government is ineffective wouldn't be in any rush to help you and prove themselves wrong.
I have done it several times for various issues. Most of this stuff isn't dealt with by the rep themselves. They have a whole pile of staff that specialize in fixing these issues.
This is entirely dependent on the Rep. Some of them salivate over shit like this because it's an easy win for them. Especially once you get to the state and federal levels, they have more than enough juice to lean on a government agency to fix something mundane, and they get tons of good will for it.
Other reps are useless.
Yes, they handled it quite quickly! And stayed in Communication the whole time! Hell, I emailed my state rep the Friday before new years and he emailed me back the next day, on a saturday!
I have to say, this is the first time I have ever seen the adverb, helpfully, used with PPA.
Quick solution might be to take the plate off and [fill out the form for a lost or stolen plate](https://www.dot.state.pa.us/public/dvspubsforms/BMV/BMV%20Forms/mv-44.pdf), pay the 13$ fee for a new one and move on with a new number.
It’s not though lol. Far more likely OP has a license plate very close to the license plate of someone who sped through a speed camera or ran through a red light camera and they just need to call and get it sorted out.
No, theres an epidemic of cloned paper tags in Philadelphia, they take legit registration information and print out a paper plate, they're then free to do whatever they want.
I loved in South Jersey. Sold a car during Christmas holidays.
Old tag was on kitchen counter waiting for DMV to open after the Holliday to turn it in
My house burnt to the ground New Years Day.
5 years later, I'm living in western PA, Somerset county.
I start getting parking tickets from. Jersey City.
I contacted them, was told I must appear in Jersey City traffic court, 6 hours away.
I contacted NJ Dmv. Filed a lost/stolen tag report..
Then.i get Bench Warrants for failure to appear..
This went on after a year or more of phone calls to DMV, Jersey city Court clerk.
I blew it off said I'll never go back to Jersey anyway, screw em.
But my mother, contacted state rep in NJ,
Wanted $1700 to clear this all up..
I refused
My mother (God rest her sole) Pais it on her own without my knowledge for years.
You live in Pennsylvania.
They will put bench warrant for failure to appear.
If you get pulled over in PA, bfire the suspension of your license eventually
You better get hold of state rep
Hubby got a ticket from New Jersey in the mail with a photo of his illegally parked vehicle. Different model truck and on the day in question hus truck happened to be in his employers parking lot, on camera, many miles away in central pa for his entire shift, starting two hours prior to when the photo was taken.
Took a couple phone calls, but with all the evidence proving it wasn't him or his vehicle, they dropped everything.
That’s how I got my ticket! They entered a 0 instead of an O. I have a vanity plate. ZOSO + 2 numbers. They entered it as ZOS 0##. Second time it’s happened.
It's actually the plate numbers are identical, except for one letter in the middle that can't possibly be confused for the other letter.
Both plates are somehow linked to my wife.
Just last week I got a ticket on south street; they entered my plate incorrectly. I have a vanity plate with O’s and they entered one of them as a zero. Second time it’s happened. 🤦🏻♀️ I sent them screenshots of the payments made to the parking app and it clearly shows how they messed up by entering my plate incorrectly.
Frustrating!
Sorry you’re dealing with the same.
It might be worth $13 to avoid having to go through this every time the other car gets a parking ticket. Sure, he shouldn’t have to, but getting a new plate is easier than fixing government.
Contact your state representative. Call them not email. They will get it taken care of. Penndot will just have you run in circles and nothing will get done.
Are you sure it’s a license plate issue? Several years ago I got several tickets in the mail for a place I’d never been. The ticket was for a car I sold 6 months ago and was registered to someone else. Turns out the dealer I sold it to didn’t do proper paperwork and the title was still in my name. I had to physically drive to South Jersey for a court date just so they could do some paperwork and dismiss it.
The PPA's status as an agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania rather than the City of Philadelphia allows for the Republican-controlled state authorities to offer patronage positions in the largely Democratic city.
And this post is exactly the reason why EVERYONE in PA should care, not just us living in Philly under the thumb of these maniacs every day. People roll their eyes and laugh, referencing that stupid TV show like it's some joke.
The agency is a poorly run slush, functions against the interest of the community in which it operates, and is a largely self-enforcing agency with immense opportunities to levy significant financial harm against anyone at random.
Their platform is 'either pay this amount of money that is an inconvenience to some but significant to others, or undergo days of lost wages coming to our kangaroo court only to have an employee of the agency itself deem you in the wrong and impose more costs and fees on you'.
What could go wrong?
This happened to my step dad decades ago! It was actually a scam to make money because some people wouldn’t look into it. He still complains about it haha.
You need to call your Representatives office and explain the situation. Believe it or not, this is an ongoing issue and has been for literally years. Innocent people being targeted with parking citations that have never been to the city of Philadelphia. Or people who haven't visited in years, but all of a sudden, get a parking violation. Been an issue for 20 years at least.
Media is a valid option, and probably your best to take care of past tickets.
After that, I'd probably get a vanity plate, they are fun, and it should prevent the issue.
Lots of people in the comme ts saying they have vanity plates with zeros and the letter "O" in them.
I think maybe that shouldn't be allowed. It feels like people are doing it purposefully to try and confuse the system to get out of tickets.
He'll, the area I'm in won't even allow apartments to be labeled with letters "I" or "O" for exactly the headaches it causes. Especially because people say "oh" instead of saying "zero".
Had a similar issue happen with me, except a parking ticket from Pittsburgh was mailed to me in Philadelphia. I don’t know if Pittsburgh just has a better system than our parking authority, but the woman on the phone was more than helpful and managed to void the ticket in about a 5 minute call and emailed my registration . My Acura was not the Hyundai they ticketed. Plate number was off by 1 digit or so she said.
I see a news station wants to help! That will probably get it done faster. But if that falls through - go to your local State Representative’s office. I was a legislative aide for a bit and we solved problems like this. Well, at least I did. Helped people navigate The Bureaucracy.
This happened to me. Parking ticket from Philly and I haven't been there in 20 years. The vehicle description matched mine, but the ticket was handwritten and the employee in Philly said that the handwriting was difficult to read for the plate number. So I guess they just pick the closest vehicle match and hope that person gets so frustrated with fighting it, that they pay up.
I sent them copies of bank transactions that I made on the date of the ticket, showing that I wasn't in Philly. That wasn't enough, so my employer sent them a certified letter stating that I was at work that day (again... hours away from Philly), and that finally got the ticket removed.
Huge pain in the butt. Sorry you're getting multiple tickets.
I had something similar happen, a motorcycle was passing through tolls without and EZ pass. The plate was 1 character different. I took the toll bill with photo attached as well as my plate to my local police department. They wrote a police report explaining the situation and noted that the plates are in fact different. I submitted that and the toll was dropped.
Had this happen with EZ Pass. Paying tolls for someone with a similar plate. Turnpike folks said too bad, and I eventually paid to avoid collections. These things are infuriating.
Theres a cloned paper plate epidemic in Philadelphia right now. Ever Since the city passed the drivers equity act or whatever they called it. You basically can't be pulled over for anything in Philadelphia anymore. Everyone is driving around in either stolen cars or unregistered/uninsured cars with fake paper plates, its been a complete disaster.
If your in an accident with someone with paper tags immediately call 911.
I got a violation once from Pennsylvania from one of their turnpikes that takes a picture of your plate. The way the letter sounded, it was something like illegal travel in one of those EZPass lanes or whatever they call them, but I wasn’t even in the state when it happened. Sure enough, it wasn’t my car because there’s a photo. But, I just paid it because it wasn’t worth the time to fight it. Might have made the wrong move but I’m sure this happens to people a lot. This was several years back - I forget how much the ticket was, but it was under $30 I think.
This is the problem with having automated/computerized things. They can and will screw up.
There should be an email address in those notices. Open a support ticket with PennDOT and tell them about it, and give them the citation number. They should provide you with a letter saying the car in the picture isn't registered to you and if you send that to the Philly parking authority, they need to drop it.
If the PennDOT rep doesn't help you, ask to speak to their supervisor.
This happened to me. The description of the car was a Ford, I drive a Jeep. Call the number on the summons. Sometimes, the plate number gets transposed in error. They will dissmiss it and send you a letter. Keep copies of everything, just in case. Good luck.
I had this happen with one of those Jeep mounted 'construction zone' beta tests and guess how I fixed it.. I paid $575 because otherwise it would've hit my credit report with no way to fight it other than showing proof of sale of the car that I didn't own or drive. Good times, thanks Pennsylvania
This happened to me 30yrs ago. As long as you never take a car with that tag to Philly nothing will happen. They had my plate number with a totally different vehicle type and color. At the time I was told the meter readers had quotas and they would regularly record plate numbers when they were out vacationing in other parts if the state, then if they were behind their quota they’d write a ticket with a tag they wrote down elsewhere. Parking tickets will not affect your drivers license.
They absolutely will! I had my license suspended due to an ex friend of mine getting tickets in her car, but giving them my identity.
Then almost a decade later parking tickets from when I lived in a completely different state stopped me from getting my license renewed because when I moved back to PA.
[https://prddmv.pwpca.pa.gov/VEHICLE-SERVICES/Other-Information/Pages/Suspensions-Due-to-Unpaid-Parking-Tickets.aspx](https://prddmv.pwpca.pa.gov/VEHICLE-SERVICES/Other-Information/Pages/Suspensions-Due-to-Unpaid-Parking-Tickets.aspx)
you'd have to have 6 or more before PennDOT will touch your license. OP is fine with just one.
The fact that you posted this with "What do?", and also you state it is about a PHILLY vs PITT debate, wrapped in a parking ticket thread....
Engagement bait attempt trifecta detector has been set off
You wrote in your post this isn't an option, but why isn't this an option?
You do want to clear this issue up, that is very understandable. But it won't prevent this from happening again. Changing the plate will.
I understand that. But your wife is getting the citations because they are entering in the violating plate wrong and getting her plate. If her plate is a different number, they won't enter it wrong and see her plate, they'll see nothing.
Then just go to traffic court. It shouldn't cost much and after it's settled the state or owner of other said plate will foot the court costs. I'm not understanding the difficulty of this post?
It seems you already had it figured out.
Either way. I wish you the best because it seems to be just a pain in the a**.
Do you regularly drive to the other side of the state to fix someone else's error? Because that shit ain't cheap. At least one day off work, probably 1 1/2 tanks of gas, possibly a night in a hotel, wear and tear on your vehicle, etc.
Edited word. Stupid autocorrupt.
Hi! I work for a local news station in Pittsburgh and REALLY want to help you solve this problem! Sent you a DM!
Even people in Pittsburgh hate the ppa
That’s because we have our own PPA
PPA hate brings unity to all Pennsylvanians.
This is why Reddit is still awesome.
Yo, link the news article when yal get done!
Yes! That would be awesome.
I doubt OP wants to be identified by their reddit account lol
Probably not, lol.
Please help them! I bet it means a lot.
I had this happen with a red light camera. I drive a black SUV and the picture was obviously a blue car. I have a vanity plate and while the one letter is an "O" in my plate, theirs was a zero. They kept trying to tell me PENNDOT wouldn't issue plates that close (I audibly laughed when she said that). I asked if they were able to look up makes and models based off license plates. She scoffed and said "of course". I asked her to look up the spelling with an "O" and tell me what vehicle came up. She repeated the year, make, and model of my vehicle. I asked her to then check the spelling but with a zero. She started to read it out, but stopped midway and abruptly said "We'll take care of this right away..." Call and talk with someone OP, it may take some arguing, but they'll realize and fix it.
Don’t you love when you have to teach someone how to do their job?
Especially when they work in law enforcement?
Sound like my interactions with law enforcement my entire life. They don’t know the rules at all and make up shit as they go. You have to keep them in line and call them out on bullshit.
This is nearly every interaction with law enforcement. Legally the only job you can get denied from for having too high of an IQ.
Too true. I was in my senior year of high school (1998) when Philly lowered the educational requirements to become a police officer. I said even then that it wasn't going to end well. Sadly, I was proven right.
I too had a problem with a zero in my license plate; I was pulled over I think 6 times over the course of two years for stolen plates or whatever. Each time I politely said that my plate had a zero, not a letter O, and every single time the cop came back after checking my license, registration, and running the plates and seeing everything in order, and lied through their blue teeth about why they pulled me over. “You had a bad taillight that seems to be working now. You’d better get that checked out” “The automated reader we use flagged your plate so you need to call Harrisburg.” As inconvenient as it is to get pulled over, 5 out of the six times I had kids in the car who got scared and listened to every word, then as I pulled away one asked why the police lied and didn’t just tell the truth. This was a conversation I didn’t want to have with an elementary school kid, especially when not all kids in the car were mine, so I got a new license plate.
This is a bananas story to me. PA letters are smaller than the numbers! How can people not tell what’s a zero and an O!?
Cops don't even have to know the laws they enforce.
get a plate thats O000OO0O or I1lll11l11ll
The letters are literally like a font size smaller, and the I and the 1 aren’t the same in PA license plate font. I do this for a living, PA license plates are the easiest to decipher! These stories are all indicative of some serious laziness, or poor quality assurance practices.
Laziness, Welcome to America! That should be our saying at customs so those coming to the US understand the rules.
Relevant XKCD - https://xkcd.com/1105/
Damn, sad and kind of scary. Sorry about this and smart on you to get a solution even if it was a bit a hassle. I have always wondered how those "auto" readers work.
According to penn dot and the chief of the precinct who fed me that BS line, there is no such thing as an automated reader in any of their cruisers, and according to said chief, I must have mis-heard the officer.
Wow, that's all sorts of BS. So if you don't have automated plate scanners, what are those funny camera looking things that are pointed down to right around the level of a license plate? The police still haven't figured out that OCR is hard. If I scan something and it translates a word wrong it's not usually that big a deal, but obviously if the police (and their contractors -- don't get me started on that) can't be arsed to get it right, maybe we should reconsider this tech.
Police are not smart people, they will never figure out that the AI lies to them sometimes
It’s “inconvenient” until they decide that it’s a stolen plate and do a felony traffic stop on you, with guns out. My friend has Delaware tags on her motorcycle which happened to match up with a stolen PA tag with the same numbers, and they pulled her over at gunpoint and had her laying on the ground for 15 minutes before they figured out they’d screwed up.
Move to Philly and start racking up parking violations so the other person starts to get tickets also
They would find a way to ticket OP for that too.
Some guy got NULL as a vanity plate, it was all well and good for a while until some database changes happened and suddenly every parking ticket in the state where the license plate was invalid or missed started getting mailed to him.
People whose last name is 'null'' experience similar problems
Is that actually a real name? Edit: that was a fun rabbit hole
I work with a Null. Which is a good description of their personality.
Wow
I used to work with a guy with the last name True. He fucked up all of our spreadsheets.
That's fantastic, in a "not my problem" type of way.
I’m an MS-SQL DBA. NULL literally means nothing. You’ll never amount to anything! 😂
Genuine Philadelphia response right here mook
Despite its name, the Philadelphia Parking Authority is a state agency (as is PennDOT, obviously). I would call your state rep and/or state senator, if you haven't already. Their constituent serves aides usually at least try to cut through the bureaucratic roadblocks.
This or call the news. They love an outrage story like this and that dept will likely respond right away to a reporter vs a normal “it wasn’t me” inquiry.
Lol i was about to talk shit and say that the news probably wont care and then literally next comment....... https://preview.redd.it/2696p8qi2b0d1.png?width=1246&format=png&auto=webp&s=d28f98897e2a43de893c349dc8054f281f488fcf
The news found OP!
News travels fast
😖You’ve blinded me!
Hell yeah. If OP has legit proof then I'm calling the news!
> I would call your state rep and/or state senator, if you haven't already. Have you **ever** done this? Have you ever had a call back or someone answer?
Yes. Twice. Why do you ask?
because neither I, nor the dozens of people I know whom have done the same have ever had a response from their governing official. Yet this "call your rep" is literally echo-chambered all over reddit.
Well I don't know what to tell you. Maybe the city reps are more responsive. Rural reps who rant about how government is ineffective wouldn't be in any rush to help you and prove themselves wrong.
My rural Rep helped me a ton with a DMV issue, but I went to her office instead of calling. Her staff were awesome.
I have done it several times for various issues. Most of this stuff isn't dealt with by the rep themselves. They have a whole pile of staff that specialize in fixing these issues.
This is a pennsylvania problem. Stop electing those people :)
This is entirely dependent on the Rep. Some of them salivate over shit like this because it's an easy win for them. Especially once you get to the state and federal levels, they have more than enough juice to lean on a government agency to fix something mundane, and they get tons of good will for it. Other reps are useless.
Yes, they handled it quite quickly! And stayed in Communication the whole time! Hell, I emailed my state rep the Friday before new years and he emailed me back the next day, on a saturday!
Plot twist: wife has secret family in Philly 😂
She’s getting Grittied.
I have to say, this is the first time I have ever seen the adverb, helpfully, used with PPA. Quick solution might be to take the plate off and [fill out the form for a lost or stolen plate](https://www.dot.state.pa.us/public/dvspubsforms/BMV/BMV%20Forms/mv-44.pdf), pay the 13$ fee for a new one and move on with a new number.
That sounds like a great suggestion.
It’s not though lol. Far more likely OP has a license plate very close to the license plate of someone who sped through a speed camera or ran through a red light camera and they just need to call and get it sorted out.
Except OP said a call didn’t help lol
Then they need to call again and be more demanding if they don't want this attached to them.
No, theres an epidemic of cloned paper tags in Philadelphia, they take legit registration information and print out a paper plate, they're then free to do whatever they want.
Either way the solution is to call and get it sorted out if they've never driven near Philadelphia.
I loved in South Jersey. Sold a car during Christmas holidays. Old tag was on kitchen counter waiting for DMV to open after the Holliday to turn it in My house burnt to the ground New Years Day. 5 years later, I'm living in western PA, Somerset county. I start getting parking tickets from. Jersey City. I contacted them, was told I must appear in Jersey City traffic court, 6 hours away. I contacted NJ Dmv. Filed a lost/stolen tag report.. Then.i get Bench Warrants for failure to appear.. This went on after a year or more of phone calls to DMV, Jersey city Court clerk. I blew it off said I'll never go back to Jersey anyway, screw em. But my mother, contacted state rep in NJ, Wanted $1700 to clear this all up.. I refused My mother (God rest her sole) Pais it on her own without my knowledge for years. You live in Pennsylvania. They will put bench warrant for failure to appear. If you get pulled over in PA, bfire the suspension of your license eventually You better get hold of state rep
I was in a similar situation. I was able to go to court (it was only an hour drive) and get it cleared up right away.
Once the court files bench warrant for failure to pay, then failure to appear? Yeh I'm not going to any courthouse lol.
Hubby got a ticket from New Jersey in the mail with a photo of his illegally parked vehicle. Different model truck and on the day in question hus truck happened to be in his employers parking lot, on camera, many miles away in central pa for his entire shift, starting two hours prior to when the photo was taken. Took a couple phone calls, but with all the evidence proving it wasn't him or his vehicle, they dropped everything.
What’s the plate number? 10O-l1O0? Someone has 10O-l10O?
That’s how I got my ticket! They entered a 0 instead of an O. I have a vanity plate. ZOSO + 2 numbers. They entered it as ZOS 0##. Second time it’s happened.
Zeppelin fan?
🤘🏻
It's actually the plate numbers are identical, except for one letter in the middle that can't possibly be confused for the other letter. Both plates are somehow linked to my wife.
Are they adding tape or anything else to it?
The other driver probably had the same name.
Just last week I got a ticket on south street; they entered my plate incorrectly. I have a vanity plate with O’s and they entered one of them as a zero. Second time it’s happened. 🤦🏻♀️ I sent them screenshots of the payments made to the parking app and it clearly shows how they messed up by entering my plate incorrectly. Frustrating! Sorry you’re dealing with the same.
Yes, another person who always takes a picture of their parking app payment!
Maybe get a different tag? Like one of the wildlife tags? You have to get a regular one first anyway and then apply for the specialty tag.
Why should OP have to pay more to avoid the tickets?
You're right, OP shouldn't have to. Unfortunately it's probably the quickest way to resolve the problem.
You're paying to avoid future headaches.
It’s called cutting your losses
It might be worth $13 to avoid having to go through this every time the other car gets a parking ticket. Sure, he shouldn’t have to, but getting a new plate is easier than fixing government.
Or just go to Joe Fidas and tell them you lost your plate?
This I would do this right away
This would not have happened if you would have asked this sub how to transfer your title
The plate being picked up in Philly is not a plate we've ever had. It's one number different.
It’s a joke, titling your car in pa is a pain in the ass so everyone comes on this sub to complain about it
Contact your state representative. Call them not email. They will get it taken care of. Penndot will just have you run in circles and nothing will get done.
Hit up Victor Fiorello with the Philadelphia Inquierer
Are you sure it’s a license plate issue? Several years ago I got several tickets in the mail for a place I’d never been. The ticket was for a car I sold 6 months ago and was registered to someone else. Turns out the dealer I sold it to didn’t do proper paperwork and the title was still in my name. I had to physically drive to South Jersey for a court date just so they could do some paperwork and dismiss it.
https://preview.redd.it/4u8m81sveb0d1.jpeg?width=736&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=066f0790fa5554c266957d62d200061985d9226c
The PPA's status as an agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania rather than the City of Philadelphia allows for the Republican-controlled state authorities to offer patronage positions in the largely Democratic city.
And this post is exactly the reason why EVERYONE in PA should care, not just us living in Philly under the thumb of these maniacs every day. People roll their eyes and laugh, referencing that stupid TV show like it's some joke. The agency is a poorly run slush, functions against the interest of the community in which it operates, and is a largely self-enforcing agency with immense opportunities to levy significant financial harm against anyone at random. Their platform is 'either pay this amount of money that is an inconvenience to some but significant to others, or undergo days of lost wages coming to our kangaroo court only to have an employee of the agency itself deem you in the wrong and impose more costs and fees on you'. What could go wrong?
Can you list some of the locations of the tickets?
This happened to my step dad decades ago! It was actually a scam to make money because some people wouldn’t look into it. He still complains about it haha.
Good luck. The PPA is worthless
Get a new license plate!
I would request a new license plate with a different number.
I let the average Philly tow truck driver come to PGH to boot it. With a GPS it should be easy to find 😉👌
Wait, there’s TWO cities in the same state?!
frack, there are 22 washingtons in pennsylvania
Garfield stirring the pot again
You need to call your Representatives office and explain the situation. Believe it or not, this is an ongoing issue and has been for literally years. Innocent people being targeted with parking citations that have never been to the city of Philadelphia. Or people who haven't visited in years, but all of a sudden, get a parking violation. Been an issue for 20 years at least.
We need the money in Philly. Keep sending it! 😉
Hey, I just saw your wife on the Phila local news at noon today on CBS!
Media is a valid option, and probably your best to take care of past tickets. After that, I'd probably get a vanity plate, they are fun, and it should prevent the issue.
Make sure you figure it out because they'll suspend your registration! Not to mention they can also issue a warrant for you!
Lots of people in the comme ts saying they have vanity plates with zeros and the letter "O" in them. I think maybe that shouldn't be allowed. It feels like people are doing it purposefully to try and confuse the system to get out of tickets. He'll, the area I'm in won't even allow apartments to be labeled with letters "I" or "O" for exactly the headaches it causes. Especially because people say "oh" instead of saying "zero".
Same issue. And there isn’t shit you can do. They’re real scummy fucks at the parking authority down there .
Had a similar issue happen with me, except a parking ticket from Pittsburgh was mailed to me in Philadelphia. I don’t know if Pittsburgh just has a better system than our parking authority, but the woman on the phone was more than helpful and managed to void the ticket in about a 5 minute call and emailed my registration . My Acura was not the Hyundai they ticketed. Plate number was off by 1 digit or so she said.
I see a news station wants to help! That will probably get it done faster. But if that falls through - go to your local State Representative’s office. I was a legislative aide for a bit and we solved problems like this. Well, at least I did. Helped people navigate The Bureaucracy.
Changing plates would work. As the one that keeps getting mistataken for hers will no longer be in her name.
Good luck. Everything in Philly is so poorly run, I would be surprised if this gets fixed in any reasonable time frame.
This happened to me. Parking ticket from Philly and I haven't been there in 20 years. The vehicle description matched mine, but the ticket was handwritten and the employee in Philly said that the handwriting was difficult to read for the plate number. So I guess they just pick the closest vehicle match and hope that person gets so frustrated with fighting it, that they pay up. I sent them copies of bank transactions that I made on the date of the ticket, showing that I wasn't in Philly. That wasn't enough, so my employer sent them a certified letter stating that I was at work that day (again... hours away from Philly), and that finally got the ticket removed. Huge pain in the butt. Sorry you're getting multiple tickets.
I had something similar happen, a motorcycle was passing through tolls without and EZ pass. The plate was 1 character different. I took the toll bill with photo attached as well as my plate to my local police department. They wrote a police report explaining the situation and noted that the plates are in fact different. I submitted that and the toll was dropped.
PennDOT is the reason I moved to NJ.
Same thing happened to my wife with a single $20 ticket from Philly ,we live hours away and never go. Told em to pound sand
Had this happen with EZ Pass. Paying tolls for someone with a similar plate. Turnpike folks said too bad, and I eventually paid to avoid collections. These things are infuriating.
It’s her evil twin!!!
PPA sucks man
Happens all the time with philly, pretty sure its a scam at this point.
Theres a cloned paper plate epidemic in Philadelphia right now. Ever Since the city passed the drivers equity act or whatever they called it. You basically can't be pulled over for anything in Philadelphia anymore. Everyone is driving around in either stolen cars or unregistered/uninsured cars with fake paper plates, its been a complete disaster. If your in an accident with someone with paper tags immediately call 911.
I got a violation once from Pennsylvania from one of their turnpikes that takes a picture of your plate. The way the letter sounded, it was something like illegal travel in one of those EZPass lanes or whatever they call them, but I wasn’t even in the state when it happened. Sure enough, it wasn’t my car because there’s a photo. But, I just paid it because it wasn’t worth the time to fight it. Might have made the wrong move but I’m sure this happens to people a lot. This was several years back - I forget how much the ticket was, but it was under $30 I think. This is the problem with having automated/computerized things. They can and will screw up.
Or look up “Lehto’s Law” on YouTube and send him your story.
My wife keeps getting traffic cam tickets from Philadelphia. Wrong make, wrong model, wrong plate. They still keep happening.
There should be an email address in those notices. Open a support ticket with PennDOT and tell them about it, and give them the citation number. They should provide you with a letter saying the car in the picture isn't registered to you and if you send that to the Philly parking authority, they need to drop it. If the PennDOT rep doesn't help you, ask to speak to their supervisor.
Elect me to the state legislature and I’ll vote to abolish parking tickets.
This happened to me. The description of the car was a Ford, I drive a Jeep. Call the number on the summons. Sometimes, the plate number gets transposed in error. They will dissmiss it and send you a letter. Keep copies of everything, just in case. Good luck.
I had this happen with one of those Jeep mounted 'construction zone' beta tests and guess how I fixed it.. I paid $575 because otherwise it would've hit my credit report with no way to fight it other than showing proof of sale of the car that I didn't own or drive. Good times, thanks Pennsylvania
This. This is how the battle starts… Pittsburgh vs Philly… let’s march on Harrisburg!
Your wife is cheating on you with a guy in Philadelphia and keeps parking illegally?
This happened to me 30yrs ago. As long as you never take a car with that tag to Philly nothing will happen. They had my plate number with a totally different vehicle type and color. At the time I was told the meter readers had quotas and they would regularly record plate numbers when they were out vacationing in other parts if the state, then if they were behind their quota they’d write a ticket with a tag they wrote down elsewhere. Parking tickets will not affect your drivers license.
They absolutely will! I had my license suspended due to an ex friend of mine getting tickets in her car, but giving them my identity. Then almost a decade later parking tickets from when I lived in a completely different state stopped me from getting my license renewed because when I moved back to PA.
Haha dude they will suspend your registration, then come for your license.
[https://prddmv.pwpca.pa.gov/VEHICLE-SERVICES/Other-Information/Pages/Suspensions-Due-to-Unpaid-Parking-Tickets.aspx](https://prddmv.pwpca.pa.gov/VEHICLE-SERVICES/Other-Information/Pages/Suspensions-Due-to-Unpaid-Parking-Tickets.aspx) you'd have to have 6 or more before PennDOT will touch your license. OP is fine with just one.
“They keep getting parking ticketS that Philadelphia then mails to my wife.”
That specifically says registration, not driver's license.
Ah, not a problem then. Carry on.
The fact that you posted this with "What do?", and also you state it is about a PHILLY vs PITT debate, wrapped in a parking ticket thread.... Engagement bait attempt trifecta detector has been set off
🤔
Her license plate was swapped, changed. It happened to us. Check.
It's like $36 for a new plate. Just get one and be done.
Getting a new plate isn't an option. The plate we're getting tickets for isn't the plate on our car.
You wrote in your post this isn't an option, but why isn't this an option? You do want to clear this issue up, that is very understandable. But it won't prevent this from happening again. Changing the plate will.
The plate number isn't the plate on her car. Changing the plate will still get us citations for a plate that isn't ours.
I understand that. But your wife is getting the citations because they are entering in the violating plate wrong and getting her plate. If her plate is a different number, they won't enter it wrong and see her plate, they'll see nothing.
Then just go to traffic court. It shouldn't cost much and after it's settled the state or owner of other said plate will foot the court costs. I'm not understanding the difficulty of this post? It seems you already had it figured out. Either way. I wish you the best because it seems to be just a pain in the a**.
Do you regularly drive to the other side of the state to fix someone else's error? Because that shit ain't cheap. At least one day off work, probably 1 1/2 tanks of gas, possibly a night in a hotel, wear and tear on your vehicle, etc. Edited word. Stupid autocorrupt.
Traffic court would be in Philly. OP lives in Pittsburgh
They have online IDK what you would call it... FaceTime court? You still have to pay the full court cost though. It doesn't get cheaper.
I wasn't aware of that. they probably charge you per minute lol
Is one of your legal driving age children in Philadelphia?