you suck, montgomery county

just got a “notice of delinquent parking ticket” in the mail from montgomery county, maryland for parking at an expired meter on november 12th at 5:17pm.

there are a couple of problems with this scenario:

• we never got the original notice of the parking violation for which we are now “delinquent.”
• i wasn’t in montgomery county that day — twelve minutes before our “violation,” i took these pictures of kate at our home in mount pleasant and proceeded to upload them to flickr four minutes *after* our violation.
• my wife wasn’t in montgomery county that day — thirty minutes after our “violation,” the lady sparkler stopped by pupusaria san miguel on her way home from work (for the best latin food in D.C., incidentally).
• the “infraction” occurred on a federal holiday (Veteran’s Day) when parking restrictions don’t apply.
• the citation *does not* list a make or model, so there is no confirmation that it was our car and not just a typo of our license plate.

however, the only recourse Montgomery County provides is to appear — in person — before the 6th District Court in Rockville.

given the cost of the ticket (at least in relation to my wife’s billing rate) and the distance between my work and the courthouse (55 minutes in decent traffic) there is no way in h-e-double-hockey-sticks that we’re going to contest the citation.

you suck, montgomery county — yet another reason i’m never moving to the suburbs.

PHOTO: Uploaded to Flickr by eddie.welker on 7 Sep 09, 12.59PM EST, via Creative Commons license.