Mistaken Identity

 

A year or so ago, I got a toll-violation notice from SunPass, the Florida Toll Road folks.  They sent me a series of bills for the plate that's attached to my 49cc scooter.  Now, for anyone who doesn't know this, scooters in the 'under 50cc' class don't require a motorcycle endorsement on your license because they're barely more than mo-peds.  Under ideal conditions — downhill with a tailwind — that scooter will do 42mph.  I've seen that happen once.

But these toll notices were from the Central Florida Expressway in Polk County, 80 miles away, a road where the minimum speed is 40mph.  It's not even legal for me to drive that scooter there.  I called SunPass to complain.  The nice lady reviewed the photo that was used to generate the notice.  It was for a Hyundai sedan whose license plate was one character off: 'Q' vs. '0' (zero).  She apologized and re-routed the toll notice to the proper person.  Case closed.

A few months back, I got another toll notice, this time for a license plate that clearly wasn't mine.  I protested again.  And again.  And again.  SunPass finally got around to digging deep into the case and they report:

...the temporary plate number CIU-7849-FL was associated with a Toll-By-Plate account in your name. The information was provided by the Department of Motor Vehicles.

I don't care what DMV says; that's not my plate.  I called DMV to verify the information.  "All our operators are busy with other callers.  Please call back another time.(click)"  I called the Pinellas County Tax Collector to see if they could verify the data, and here's where it gets uncomfortable.  PCTC says "Yessir, Mr. Clarke, that's your plate!"  The helpful operator, after checking with a supervisor, suggested that the dealer, Parks Ford, might have accidentally put my information on the paperwork for that 2010 Cadillac when they sold it in January.  That's plausible.  That's where we got our 2018 Ford last June.

Turns out, when they were hustling through the paperwork for Francis Leroy Clark, they used the information associated with Francis Xavier Clarke by mistake.  Uh-oh...

They swear by all that's holy that they will correct everything that needs correcting and confirm back to me that all is well.  It may take a few months, though...