News10NBC Investigates: Wayne County woman fights NYC ticket, where she’s never driven

ONTARIO, N.Y. Bogus tickets from New York City take up this family’s entire dining room table.

The family is getting so many tickets and warnings from New York City they dread going to the mailbox. And one of the letters that arrived last week said they’re now in collections. The problem started when this SUV was hit on 104 in Webster.

Anne-Marie Williamson says her SUV was totaled. They turned it in, where they believe it was sold at auction and surrendered the plates to the DMV. And then they started getting the tickets.

Brean: How long has this been going on?
Anne-Marie Williamson, Ontario resident: Well the car was totaled in January. The plates were returned in February. And then the first tickets started showing up around the first of May.

Here is a sample of the dates listed on a stack of tickets from New York City: June 3. June 13. June 24. August 24. October 5. October 12. November 2. November 23.

They’re all for missing plates or bad plates for an SUV parked on 178th Street in the Bronx. Anne-Marie says she spent $200 on photocopies and postage trying to fight this. One letter to New York City finance was a desperate handwritten note with a plea to read.

Williamson: This is me getting ticked off saying, ‘Hey, how many times do I have to tell you?’

No one has told Anne-Marie if the SUV is still registered to her or someone is using her old plates.
I contacted New York City Finance Friday and they told me they’ve dismissed every ticket but one.
But last week, another letter showed up warning Anne-Marie that New York City sent all the fines to collections.

Brean: What is it that you would like to see the New York City Department of Finance do?
Williamson: Really I would like to see the New York City Department of Finance look internally at themselves. Something is wrong that people out of state, out of the area that have not been to New York City are receiving these tickets.

I’m getting Anne-Marie in touch with someone at New York City finance to deal with the one remaining ticket and deal with the collections issue. Anne-Marie says she hasn’t been to New York City in a decade and she’s never driven into the city.