Laura Doherty had just been ordered to pay $570 in parking tickets and fines–on a license plate some jerk stole off her car more than a year ago. The worst part was, the city knew this, and yet was still demanding that she foot the bill.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Doherty bolted the new plates onto her car and went on with her life. She was preoccupied with moving to a new apartment in Uptown. But early that November, her mailbox started filling up with violation notices from the Chicago Department of Revenue. On September 13, a vehicle bearing her old plate had been ticketed for parking in a street-sweeping zone; on September 20, for parking in a rush-hour zone. Most of the offenses occurred near Lawndale and Diversey in Avondale, a neighborhood Doherty had never visited. Doherty wrote “STOLEN PLATE” on the notices and mailed them back, along with letters explaining the situation and copies of the police report.
The city excused her from a couple tickets, but more notices arrived.
She called the secretary of state’s police. Fax us the police report, they told her.
Though she had given the secretary of state’s office her new address, the city was still sending notices to her old apartment. After she’d requested the hearing, more belated notices had straggled in. She’d assumed she could just save them up and deal with everything at once. Riley said she couldn’t.
Now Doherty owed $570. She decided not to pay. They weren’t her tickets, so why should she? In May the revenuers wrote to tell Doherty she was on the boot list. She ignored the letter, but all through spring and summer, every time she approached her car, she’d peer around the bumper with trepidation, looking for the clunky yellow boot. Doherty’s a musician and works at the Old Town School of Folk Music, so she couldn’t help thinking of “Lincoln Park Pirates,” Steve Goodman’s ode to our revenue department: “Way, hey, tow them away / The Lincoln Park Pirates are we / From Wilmette to Gary, there’s nothin’ so hairy / And we always collect our fee!”
“In this case, you’ve got someone who got a bunch of tickets,” he said. “She probably couldn’t keep up with the tickets, so we’re not going to be heavy-handed. If I get the police report, that gives me enough information for a motion to vacate. We could move [her money] into escrow until we approached the Department of Administrative Hearings. If they rule in her favor, we’ll provide a refund.”
