What a Disaster -- Listen to this!! (13 September 2003)

You'll never believe this, but, as I was 45 minutes away from picking up my new car and running some last minute errands, I was stopped by police who told me my plates for my Tercel were 12 hours expired, and were already applied to the Honda. I thought my plates were valid *until* I take possession of my new car. I have never switched car plates before in my life. I was not speeding or driving carelessly, so being stopped by the police was the result of them randomly running my plates.

After pleading with the officer for some sympathy, she proceeded to seize my licence plates and a court summons for 17 October 2003, to explain myself -- in Newmarket.

At this point, I was stuck on the road, and unable to pick up my new car because I was to use the existing plates. To add to this, when CAA came to tow the Tercel, they told me that they don't tow cars without plates. So they dinged me an extra $100 for the trouble to get it towed without plates. They were sympathetic, and waived the cost.

There's more. I couldn't pick up my new car on Saturday because all the papers were tied to the now seized license plate. So, with the Ministry of Transportation closed on Saturdays at 1PM, I was told I had to wait until Monday to get new plates from the Ministry, and redo all the papers at the dealership before I was able to drive off with the new car.

The worst part of all this is, in my opinion, the lack of human decency to recognize an honest human oversight / error. I offered the police officer to leave the car as is, get it towed, so long as I could leave with my plates and pick up my new car within the hour. She wouldn't budge. She ruined my day, my weekend, and caused me a huge amount of inconvenience. I understand she was doing her job, but there's a difference between doing things right and doing the right thing.

Kralidis Walks -- Justice for the Honest Guy! (17 October 2003)

Well, after the potential of a huge fine, points and possible jail time (imagine my face when I heard *that* one!!), I got off with a $25 fine. After I pleaded "guilty asking for humanity", the judge was sympathetic to the honest mistake I made, to the fact that the plates were barely expired (12 hours, 10 minutes) due to an oversight, as well as to the fact that I took time off work, and drove from the nation's capital for this mess, so she let me go easy. Hooray!

The scary part was seeing others there, half of which were caught driving without insurance, and all got dinged with fines of $5000 -- yikes! Traffic court really opens your eyes. I barely went over 100km/h on the highway back home.