dammit, jim! i’m a computer glitch, not a license plate
‘NOTAG’ tags bring flood of tickets [news journal, july 22, 2004]Jim Cara wanted a vanity license tag that would make people laugh.
But when he chose “NOTAG” for the plate on his Suzuki Hayabusa, a sleek blue and silver motorcycle with a speedometer that reaches 220 mph, the joke backfired.
The new tag arrived Saturday under an avalanche of Wilmington parking violations.
“All the traffic tickets say, ‘Notice of violation. License number: no tag,’ ” Cara said.
City computers, talking to state Division of Motor Vehicles computers, had finally found an address for ticketed vehicles that lacked license tags: Cara’s home in Elsmere.
“I messed up the system so bad,” Cara said. “I wonder if they can put me in jail or something?”
….
John Rago, communications director for Mayor James M. Baker, said an incorrect computer code used by the contractor that processes the city’s parking violations helped land the tickets in Cara’s mail. City officials planned to have it corrected Wednesday, he said.
rawk.