GUILTY!

On Thursday June 26th I went to court and was found GUILTY! Guilty of what you ask??? Well, a parking violation. Yes... I went to court over a parking ticket. It's a very long story so here ya go.

A month or so ago I was at my sister Kym's house. I had lost my car keys that day so I was using the valet key instead. After a little while I had Anna and Elizabeth go out to the car to grab the diaper bag. At the car Anna thought it would be funny to lock Elizabeth inside. Elizabeth proceeded to pull up the lock and open the door to get herself out. Well, apparently if you are on the inside of my car and pull the lock it makes my car alarm go off. It was blaring and I didn't have my car remote to turn it off. It would not turn off, I tried everything. We thought maybe if I drove the car around enough it would turn the alarm off. Needless to say, it didn't. I drove around with the alarm honking and all the people in the neighborhood coming out of their houses cussing me out. I rounded the block one more time hoping it would turn off, when all of a sudden there were two college kids standing in front of me in the middle of the road with their hands out saying, "Stop, Stop. This is a citizen's arrest." They thought I was stealing the van. Well, since they were in my way and I didn't want to hit them I pulled over. When I explained to them that I didn't steal the car and that I obviously couldn't get the alarm to go off they offered to help, (we were yelling of course...you couldn't hear a thing with the stupid horn blaring!)
They knew exactly what to do (which I thought was a little weird...had they stolen a car before???) They opened the hood and pulled the fuse out that operates the alarm. It turned off...woo hoo, no more horn honking. I hopped back in the car and tried to drive away, but the car wouldn't budge. The gear shift was locked. My car is so super cool, and new, and modern that it apparently knows when someone is trying to steal it. So when the alarm fuse was taken out the gear shift locked up and my car was immovable unless I had the engine key and the remote (I call it the clicker). So I left my car where it was, walked back to Kym's house, borrowed her car and drove down to Jeff's work to get his clicker. I was gone maybe 20 minutes and when I got back there was a ticket on the car... STINKER!!! It was for parking my car with the left tire against the curb. Can you believe it??? I was soooo... mad. I had to park it there, the cute college boys had stopped me there, the car had seized up, shoot, I didn't even know it was against the law to park with your left tire against the curb! The ticket was for 35 dollars and I was so ticked off I decided to take it to court. I mean wouldn't you? I certainly did not do anything wrong, I was a victim, a victim I tell you, and I was NOT going to pay 35 dollars for parking my car the wrong way!

So, Thursday was the big day. I was ridiculously nervous, my hands had not been that sweaty since my junior prom (I remember because my mom made me put powder in my white satin gloves to help dry them out). When Jeff and I sat down I noticed a very young officer and thought "wow, he looks like he is 18, it must be his first day on the job or something". I also heard him complaining to another officer that he was there for a "stupid parking ticket." Needless to say I felt like a shmuck, all I could think was...why didn't I just pay the 35 dollar fine??? Why oh why. It made me all the more nervous. There were quite a few people on the docket, all with some kind of traffic violation. One by one names were called and all of them were dismissed. The officer for each one had not appeared at court. Of course, mine was the only officer that day that decided to show. When the judge finally called my name I swear I could hear all the court officials snickering as they realized I was petitioning for a stupid parking ticket. I stood, I told my story (the best I could...I was freaking out on the inside) and the Judge said..."good story, you're still guilty, but good story. No fine, just pay the 20 dollar court fee."

So, was it worth it??? Heck yeah.... I only had to pay 20 dollars. I definitely felt vindicated. All of that anxiety saved me a whopping 15 dollars!