Thank You, City of St Louis

My birthday was October 1, and I received an unexpected birthday "present" from the City of St Louis. Two tickets were on my windshield when I got into my car that morning. One was for Invalid Inspection and the other was for Invalid License Plates.


The expiration date on my plates was September 2009. The tickets were written at 3:50 am on that morning. My plates had been expired less than 4 hours, and I'm already getting a ticket! The upside is that this might be proof that I live in a very safe, crime-free neighborhood. The downside is that I might have a police officer stalking me. And the two tickets come with total fine of $50.

I wrote an appeal letter for these two tickets and mailed it that day. I figure it's worth a shot, right? I did have the renewed plates for my car. They were obtained and paid for the last full week in September. I just had not had a chance to put them on the car. I put them on the car that morning before I left work. So my argument against the Invalid Plates is that my car was never driven with expired plates. As for the invalid inspection, that's just completely bogus. You have to complete safety and emissions inspections in order to renew plates. That was done in August and the stickers were displayed in the lower left corner of the driver's side windshield. Right where they are supposed to be.

I included copies of all my inspection and renewal paperwork in my two appeal letters. I also included a picture of the plates and stickers on my car with a cellphone in the showing the time and date stamp.

It's been a week, and I have not heard back yet. Apparently the appeals review process is not as speedy and efficient as the citation issuing process. I'll let you know how it turns out.