Paying My Parking Ticket
Several months ago, I got a parking ticket in down town Raleigh. Since, I have been afraid to park on the street fearing that I would come out to find a boot on my car due to my severely overdue unpaid parking ticket. Well, Monday I decided that it was finally time to settle my account with Park Raleigh.
I was going to mail in my payment, but then, after I had written out my check, I saw where you could pay for your ticket online. I went the online payment site and put in my ticket number. I was disappointed when my ticket could not be found. I assumed that they only kept tickets written in the last 90 days, or six months, online and all other tickets must be paid the old fashioned way, by mail or in person. Or, worse case, they had sent my ticket to collections.
I was going out to pay another bill. So, I decided to stop by Park Raleigh's office to pay for my ticket, plus the late fees. My trip to 131 South Wilmington was very educational. Here's what I learned...
- If you are a officer of the law, you can get your friends/co-workers out of having to pay for a ticket. This information came courtesy of a Wake County Sheriff being in front of me in line. He was able to get "an exception" for one of the administrative staffers out of a ticket they got for double parking by being in uniform.
To be fair though, he was there paying some other ticket. So, it's not like he was getting off completely free. - It takes three, or more, tickets that are more than 90 days past due to get a boot on you car. This information came via the guy that took his turn after the deputy. He shelled out a couple hundred dollars to get the boot removed from his car.
They printed his list of tickets and there were at least 20 items on the list. I don't know if the list included previous tickets that had already been paid, but either way, that's a lot of money for parking. I think, I would take the bus. - If the online system cannot find you ticket, there's a real good chance that the people in the office aren't going to be able to locate it in the system either. This was my situation. I went in there with a check already written out fro $40, $20 ticket and $20 late fee. Then, I walked out with a $40 check.
The lady behind the counter took the ticket and looked up the number, but it did not come up in the system. She said something like, "Well... I could put it in the system for you. Or...". I took the opportunity to express my desire to take the "Or...". She handed me the ticket back and said have a nice day.
Have you had any run-ins the Park Raleigh that went well or NOT so well?
posted by Shannon Smith @ 10/08/2009
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I have had several run-ins with Raleigh's Police force...although it was for speeding tickets and a few other things.
However, I did have some parking tickets while at State. They kind of do the same thing at State; try to look it up, and if it doesn't come up then "or...", which is awesome when you have that "or..." situation. Not so awesome when they find that you not only have the ticket you are trying to pay but another ticket that you forgot about. They still don't boot it, but the fees are a bit much on a college kid.
John ran a red light once in my car, and the cameras went off. We looked in the mail constantly for the ticket that we were going to try to get expunged off my record, but it never came. We got off with the "or..." situation on that one. Nice!
Also, keep in mind that if you park the wrong on the streets downtown (as in not the way traffic is facing) you will get a ticket. Several people don't know this and just dart across the street for an open spot...the cops love these people.
I know about tickets in Wake County (and a few others we'll not mention). Fortunately, I have learned the error of my ways and only speed when cops aren't around! haha
One thing to note is that the parking tickets in down town Raleigh have very little, maybe nothing, to do with the police. Parking is "managed" by Park Raleigh. My guess is that they put a bid on a contract with the city and happened to win. In other words, they are the people that are paying the city of Raleigh for the opportunity to write you parking tickets.
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