WINNIPEG -It’s a $300 parking ticket Jo-Ann Adam says there is no way anyone in her family could have gotten.
“I couldn’t actually fathom what it was, actually,” said Adam.
Last week, her partner received the ticket in the mail.
Someone parked in a handicapped zone on Rorie Street on October 4, 2010.
Adam says three weeks earlier she sold that vehicle and cancelled the licence plates. She even has documentation from Manitoba Public Insurance showing the licence plate history. Adam lives in Thompson.
“I could fax them all the information I have and that we no longer own this vehicle and that the plates were canceled,” said Adam. “There should be someone able to help us.”
Adam says she spent around three hours on the phone being transferred from different city departments.
“I just find it really frustrating that they put me through to so many people and I talked to three or four people and nobody passed me on to a manager to deal with this,” she said.
Adam was sent an email by the Winnipeg Parking Authority that said if she wanted to dispute the ticket she would have to appear in person to the office at 494 Portage Avenue before going to court.
Adam says that would mean taking time off work, driving 16 hours round trip, paying for gas, hotel and food. She estimates it would cost her $1,000 to fight the $300 ticket she says isn’t even hers.
“We aren’t coming down to Winnipeg to pay this,” Adam said. “We need to find a solution for this.”
The city refused to make someone available to answer Global News’ questions and did not want to discuss the specific ticket. A statement to Global News did say there are options available but did not go in to any detail.
Manitoba Public Insurance says incidents like this do happen and it will provide documentation to people showing a cancelled policy that can be used to dispute a ticket.
Adam already has that paperwork.
MPI also says a licence plate is like a credit card and when it is cancelled it should be cut up and destroyed.
“People who have licence plates, it’s their property and even if you sell your vehicle, cancel the policy you want to take care of that plate,” said Brian Smiley, with Manitoba Public Insurance.
Adam knows that now.
“We learned our lesson for sure and we wont let that happen again,” she said.
She has reached out to a lawyer to help sort the ticket out.
Comments