Thought it was a scam

calgarychef · #1 11-19-2021, 09:53 AM

Weird… I got a parking ticket from the city of Edmonton but I haven’t been there for ages and my truck has never been there.

I called and asked about it, the nice lady reassured me that indeed a ticket with that number had been issued to a vehicle with my license plates. She said don’t worry the ticket has been paid already.

So it wasn’t a scammer trying to get me to send a cheque in the mail.

But it raises questions;

- If someone else received the ticket why did they pay it if MY licence plate number was on the ticket.

- My address is associated with the truck/license plate # so that’s why did the ticket came to me. If it came to me how did someone else pay the ticket?

Trochu · #2 11-19-2021, 09:55 AM

Have you checked your plate?
Are you sure it's your plates on the truck?

flydude · #3 11-19-2021, 10:02 AM

Was the phone number you called on the ticket or did you call the City of Edmonton direct?

https://www.edmonton.ca/contactus

calgarychef · #4 11-19-2021, 10:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trochu

Have you checked your plate?
Are you sure it's your plates on the truck?

Yup they’re my plates

calgarychef · #5 11-19-2021, 10:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flydude

Was the phone number you called on the ticket or did you call the City of Edmonton direct?

https://www.edmonton.ca/contactus

I called the city of Edmonton not the number on the ticket.
I did ask the city employee if the phone number on the ticket was right and she said yea, and the address to send the cheque to is the city of Edmonton. And…they did issue the ticket.

TrollGRG · #6 11-19-2021, 11:02 AM

Do you have these blackouts often?

You aren't a serial killer are you?

CNP · #7 11-19-2021, 11:06 AM

If the ticket is legit I can only see one way this could have transpired: The ticket was written up with the wrong tag, the owner of the ticketed vehicle did not verify the tag and paid the ticket. This assumes all of what you said is correct (your truck has never been to Edmonton and your plate was not stolen).

CNP · #8 11-19-2021, 11:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrollGRG

You aren't a serial killer are you?

Coincidentally, I have been BINGE watching Dexter. Never seen an episode until Monday and since then I am into season 6 episode 4. A broken collar bone does that to you

C2C3PO · #9 11-19-2021, 11:09 AM

May I ask if what you received was a mailed notice of the offence as opposed to the actual ticket that would be placed on the windshield?
I think I know what happened.

calgarychef · #10 11-19-2021, 11:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by C2C3PO

May I ask if what you received was a mailed notice of the offence as opposed to the actual ticket that would be placed on the windshield?
I think I know what happened.

Yes, no copy of windshield ticket it was mailed on 8x10:white stock.

C2C3PO · #11 11-19-2021, 11:22 AM

As CNP said;
Check the description and color of the vehicle on the mailed notice - I am guessing ( and this happens all the time) is that the person who parked wherever this was entered their plate # incorrectly into the kiosk.
Then when the bylaw officer did their rounds and saw the meter expired ( the meters are connected wirelessly to a local kiosk nearby) it correlated the parking meter # with the vehicle. The ticket that was generated from their handheld machine wouldve matched the plate number that was inputted by the person.
When the person returned and saw they had a ticket they probably didnt notice that the plate number ( probably only off by a digit) was wrong and simply paid it.
HOWEVER, in order for this to be the case the color and make of the vehicle should not match with yours as that is manually inputted by the issuing bylaw officer.
Let me know. There is another possibility if this was a city parkade and not street parking.....

calgarychef · #12 11-19-2021, 11:28 AM

There was no description of the vehicle on the ticket I got.

calgarychef · #13 11-19-2021, 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by C2C3PO

As CNP said;
Check the description and color of the vehicle on the mailed notice - I am guessing ( and this happens all the time) is that the person who parked wherever this was entered their plate # incorrectly into the kiosk.
Then when the bylaw officer did their rounds and saw the meter expired ( the meters are connected wirelessly to a local kiosk nearby) it correlated the parking meter # with the vehicle. The ticket that was generated from their handheld machine wouldve matched the plate number that was inputted by the person.
When the person returned and saw they had a ticket they probably didnt notice that the plate number ( probably only off by a digit) was wrong and simply paid it.
HOWEVER, in order for this to be the case the color and make of the vehicle should not match with yours as that is manually inputted by the issuing bylaw officer.
Let me know. There is another possibility if this was a city parkade and not street parking.....

So if the person parking input the wrong license #, they would have had to get a manual ticket on the windshield and paid it. I guess that would make sense.

Trochu · #14 11-19-2021, 11:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrollGRG

Do you have these blackouts often?

I think he had another one. Started this thread, then about 30 minutes posted the exact same thing again.

C2C3PO · #15 11-19-2021, 11:38 AM

Okay.
The letter is generated automatically and sent out to the address of the registered owner of the vehicle correlating to the plate.
If you were to really want to dig into this you could call the # on the ticket and they should be able to pull up an actual scanned copy of the original ticket to see what the issuing bylaw officer put for color/make. Odds are extremely unlikely the offending vehicle matches those two input fields. It is just no one noticed .
This happened to my daughter recently where she paid for parking but came back early to find a ticket on the windshield but luckily she noticed she had entered her plate in wrong. The kiosk only knows what plate number SHOULD be at the meter and for how long - it is up to the issuer to verify it is one in the same.
It took almost 2 months for them to review and cancel the ticket but they can/will do it.
Hope that helps.

C2C3PO · #16 11-19-2021, 11:41 AM

I should have also added that the only reason you received a letter or notice in the mail was likely because the person did not pay the ticket on time but then subsequently did. What you got was similar to a "reminder" encouraging out of towners to pay........

calgarychef · #17 11-19-2021, 11:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trochu

I think he had another one. Started this thread, then about 30 minutes posted the exact same thing again.

Yup ! Came back to the iPad and noticed I hadn’t sent if, hit the button then realized I had.

calgarychef · #18 11-19-2021, 11:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by C2C3PO

I should have also added that the only reason you received a letter or notice in the mail was likely because the person did not pay the ticket on time but then subsequently did. What you got was similar to a "reminder" encouraging out of towners to pay........

Yup! Thanks for the help. I hadn’t considered that it could be in a parking lot, I assumed on street ticketing with an automatic scanner for plates.

Grizzly Adams1 · #19 11-19-2021, 03:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CNP

If the ticket is legit I can only see one way this could have transpired: The ticket was written up with the wrong tag, the owner of the ticketed vehicle did not verify the tag and paid the ticket. This assumes all of what you said is correct (your truck has never been to Edmonton and your plate was not stolen).

Yup, people get tickets in the mail, figure they're guilty and pay them. Not me .

Grizz