EAST NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Parking warrants could be issued after East Nashville residents say they received what they call ‘invisible tickets.’
Several neighbors in the Cleveland Park area said they received a letter in the mail from NDOT that they were late paying a ticket after they parked on the wrong side of the road.
“If payment is not received within 30 days, a parking warrant will be issued against you, additional court costs, garnishment of wages, and or seizure of property may occur,” Alex Wilfand said.
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That’s the letter Wilfand received in the mail for allegedly parking on the wrong side of the road in his neighborhood and never paying his ticket. "If I’m not aware of a ticket I shouldn’t be getting a letter for $95 and have to go to court to fight it."
According to Wilfand, he is one of a dozen in his neighborhood that have received this letter.
“It said I had a parking ticket that was unpaid and now it was with the warrants division with Metro, and I had a short time to pay it, or I would have a warrant out for my arrest,” Jenny Thayer said.
Thayer first thought it was a scam, but once the number matched up with the warrants office and she found her ticket on hubNashville, she decided to pay her ticket as well as her son's who also received a letter.
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“I wanted to make sure that we wouldn’t get pulled over for something else and there is a warrant out for our arrest, and we go to jail so I went ahead and paid both of our tickets,” Thayer said.
For Wilfand, he called NDOT to ask why none of the neighbors found a physical ticket on their car or in the mail. News 2 reached out to NDOT who wrote in part, “If there was a ticket issued and letter received, I can confirm that the ticket was placed on the vehicle as part of our standard process. I can’t speak to what happens after the ticket is placed on the vehicle.”
“It seems a little funny to me that ten cars lost their tickets in a wind storm,” Thayer said.
As neighbors plan to now fight this, potentially bringing it to court, they said they hope no one else falls victim.
“I just feel like we live in Candyland where we hand out invisible tickets and scare people into paying them,” Wilfand said.
NDOT told News 2 that their enforcement division is now staffed at a level that allows for a more significant neighborhood presence. They also wrote: “Parking against the flow of traffic is against the law and a ticketable offense.”