Barlow Blog

On the 1st weekend in May, I received my first traffic citation since we moved to Rockport from a city police officer. I was pulling a borrowed trailer which we had used all day helping citizens of Rockport clean up their yards, rake/bag leaves, & other community service type stuff, but the trailer had tags on it that had expired in July 2008 (this was May 2009). No problem - I got the ticket, the owner of the trailer offered to pay for it, & since it wasn't a moving violation, it doesn't go on my driving record.

So yesterday I went to city hall to pay the ticket - since I'm a Pastor at a local church, I figured it would be better to pay it rather than have a warrant issued for my arrest. I get to city hall & the lady behind the glass immediately starts looking for ways to dismiss my ticket - yes, I said DISMISS. The officer had put the wrong date on the citation, but that wasn't enough to dismiss it. Then she noticed the officer didn't put the expiration date for the tags on the ticket - at least in the right place. He put it somewhere else, but that would have been enough to dismiss the ticket.

After a few more minutes of searching earnestly for other ways to dismiss the ticket, she finally comes to the conclusion that I will indeed have to pay the $190.00 for the citation since the tags were expired almost a year earlier. So I divvy out my cash, she writes me a receipt, and I turn to leave.

Here's the icing on the cake - as I'm headed out the door, she says in the most sincere & apologetic tone I've ever heard from a public services worker: "I'm sorry you got a ticket, Mr. Barlow."

My reply - "It's okay...the owner of the trailer just paid the ticket." (smile)

She returned my smile, wished me a good day, and I left. I wouldn't ever expect that to happen again...ever. It kind of reminded me of a time gone by (see above picture).