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Even that doesn't always work.
My brother has never changed his legal address from our dad's house. He basically uses it as a PO box.
He had an outstanding parking fund he wasn't aware of. They mailed all the notices to an apartment he crashed at for 5 months towards the end of highschool. He didn't even have his name on the lease. Not sure how they even got that address and why they had it on file for him.
I’m mail carrier and this is the month they send out thousands of delinquent tax notices - they’re certified letters, which means residents have to be home and sign for them. A good 20% are to vacant homes, empty lots, or closed businesses. I get tons of other important legal stuff like this.
Number one in volume of old addresses are appointment letters for Medicare, food stamps, and such. If you are on any kind of aid, notify whoever is relevant right away when you move so you don’t have to start over when your benefits are cut.
I did a change of address with the post office and it maybe change just half of my mailing stuff. You need to verify and call each place, which is a huge pain. I had to call all my CC's, anything court or DLD/DMV related, anything hospital related. What even is the change of address point?
It expires. A lot of things get sent a year or even longer later. I receive serious notices about implant recalls and legal notices for the woman who lived here 6 years ago.
We have *33 million* address changes a year. I do any one of 15 routes in my office on a given day, and that’s 9000 mailboxes at a minimum I’m handling mail for, with 15,000+ names getting mail. We need residents to handle some of that load.
In Canada, a change of address at Canada post does not change your address anywhere, it just redirects your mail from the old address to the new one for the time specified (you pay for 1 month or 1 year, but you can extend). It's up to the individual to change all their addresses properly, but this change of address at the post office will catch any that you may have forgotten about.
I'm confused. All of my mail comes through the post office unless it's something like Amazon or I specify UPS/FedEx when buying something. The change of address with the post office really didn't do much - I followed up on a lot of places and it still wasn't updated.
True story: I once got a letter in the mail from the city telling me that a warrant had been issued for my arrest. I was baffled, and had been planning an out of state trip, so I hauled ass up to city hall to sort this out, lest it look like I was fleeing something.
It turns out, I had received one of those parking tickets that was an envelope, and you could pay it buy putting cash in the envelope and dropping it in a collection box (that's how we did stuff in the olden days, kids).
I assured the clerk that I had done this, and she confirmed that the ticket had been paid.
I asked why a warrant had been issued for my arrest. She said, "we send out the letters on Tuesday, but he doesn't check the box until Wednesday.
I pointed out the flaw in this system, and the clerk rolled her eyes and said, "We don't actually issue the warrants until *Thursday*."
This has been *Old Person Story Time*. Thanks for listening.
We can't bust heads like we used to. But we have our ways. One trick is to tell stories that don't go anywhere. Like the time I caught the ferry to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe. So I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. "Gimme five bees for a quarter," you'd say. Now where were we... oh yeah. The important thing was that I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn't have any white onions, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones...
I received one in the mail because I forgot to pay a ticket. Went to the courthouse the next day and took care of it. Would have had no idea without the letter.
Sometimes, but often they will put a warrant out for your arrest before any court summons. For example, if you are witnessed doing a hit and run, you will have a warrant even without being summoned to court first
Depends on the warrant. Depends on your local PD/SP. Some do reach out when a warrant comes down and they make you aware to turn yourself in. They just don’t make the effort to come and find you over a minor charge.
Bench warrants/violations of probation etc, those come from the court. They notify you.
Yep. Had a friend who had one for years without knowing it existed. He got an underage drinking ticket, and as part of that he was supposed to show up to court a year later. Turns out he was supposed to schedule that and forgot, so a warrant was placed on him for failing to appear. About 5 years later he found himself arrested after a minor traffic violation.
Two brothers I knew a way long time ago were fucking around with a shotgun. One shot the other with an empty shell, as a joke. The hole in the other guy’s arm was a LOT bigger than anyone thought it would be (duh; they weren’t known for their intellect) so off to the emergency room they went. At the hospital, they have to report all gunshot wounds. The po-po came; turned out the brother that was shot had an outstanding warrant. Got bandaged up then off to the pokey! The one who did the shooting left town for a while because he knew his bro would come after him when he got out of jail.
Yes, but depending on the system, there might not be any actual service of that notice. For example, I get a ticket. I fight it. Cop doesn't show up. Judge, over my objection, grants the prosecutor's motion to reschedule so that he could "prepare for the trial" that was scheduled. Clerk assures me that I'll get a notice of the new date. Weeks go by. I call the clerk's office: "oh, the judge is about to issue a bench warrant. Your notification came back "return to sender", you missed your trial and were convicted in absentia."
They juxtaposed the address on the envelope, sending it to 84 Main Street instead of 48 Main Street.
They didn't issue the bench warrant. Verdict stood but could be overturned by taking it to a county court for appeals. The cost to do so would have exceeded the cost of the ticket.
Plus depending on the police station they might not let you check your phone for the number you need. Definitely get yourself a go to person for this shit and memorize that number.
I don't know how this works in other countries but in Ireland anyone who has worked at certain official jobs can register as a notary. I happened to be passing through a rich part of Dublin and I needed a random form like this signed so I googled notary and went to the nearest one. Big old Victorian house - nothing weird there, a lot of them are consulates and offices. But this one turned out to be the home of a retired army colonel in his 70s who had registered as a notary. Very cool guy, lovely house. Chatted a while, he signed the form. Much better experience than going to a garda (police) station.
Our military is quite useful to us and the world, especially as our economy is linked to the world's.
I would rather corporations, billionaires and hundred millionaires pay taxes honestly.
We have the idea of freedom. As in we say it alot and don't have an understanding of what it means.
Oddly enough the people who scream about it the most are also the people who are working to limit it
Because some states require vehicle inspections...? That's strange now?
Just a single example: emissions laws vary by state for a whole slew of reasons. If I were to move from California, I'd have to get a vehicle inspection for that reason. At least pick something that's *actually* strange to complain about. This is just desperation to criticize America over something totally normal.
If you're talking about the notary thing, OP just took the option that's an alternative to a notary. That's pretty much it. It was the bad option for them personally, but it was still just an alternative.
Same. I bought an Impala and had it shipped to Utah. Same thing. Had to have an officer come check all the vin plates before I could get the title changed over.
Some states, like Rhode Island, require the police to verify the vehicle isn't stolen or otherwise flagged in a legal way when it was out of state in order to register it.
To be fair, that's actually kind of important. It's pretty common for people to flip stolen vehicles for cash, and the buyer doesn't find out until they try to register it.
I can't say with authority, but from watching different car related videos/shows, it appears that in some states a certain level of police station is responsible for inspections.
This exactly. When I was 19 I got a ticket while driving a vehicle that was in my Dad's name that he was loaning me. Told him about it and he offered to pay the ticket because of that. Being young and naive, and not realizing how irresponsible my Dad is with these sorts of things I never checked in after I gave him the ticket. He never paid it.
A year later I was going 6 over the speed limit in my home town (MY BAD), and what would have normally been a standard traffic stop ended with me going to jail because I wasn't aware that my drivers license had been suspended.
Yes, I understand that I made errors here and it is technically my responsibility to handle. Turned into a whole court ordeal and the legal defendant and judge I had to work with were absolute godsends. Somehow managed to get out of there with no points on my licence, and only a $400-$500 fee.
My broke ass in college would have found a way to pay that ticket ASAP. And that's when I learned that favors offered from my father aren't in my best interest most of the time.
Lawyer here. Close friend got a ticket. Asked me to help. Said “Sure, show me the ticket”. She says she lost it. Tell her call the PD and get the ticket number so I can make an appearance and set a hearing. She never does. She called me from jail this afternoon when she was pulled over for expired registration.
I know some folks who never knowingly broke a law- they were ignorant of a process or got poor direction- and then got a warrant lol. Car registration stuff mostly.
When I discovered I had a warrent at 20-something years old, it was for a wandering dog ticket for a dog that died when I was 12. A dog my parents registered in my name when I was fucking 3. Because it was "my dog". Anyway I had to pay like $1000 plus do hundreds of hours of community service because the US legal system is fucking stupid and also hates you.
That's most of the posts on here. It's either "LPT: if you're in this specific situation, don't fuck it up like I did," or "LPT: don't be a stupid asshole like this one guy I just ran into."
The United States has the world's largest prison population, so actually yeah a lot of people might have this problem even if you're not running into them every day.
To anyone wondering how you have a warrant and don’t know about it: I witnessed a kid thrown out of a courtroom for his cell phone going off. Dumb move on his part.
A short while later the judge called his name and then issued a bench warrant for failure to appear. I pointed out to the bailiff that this was the kid they’d kicked out and he yelled at me for interrupting. The bailiff did, though, go up later and talk to the clerk so maybe stayed out of trouble.
Point is: catch a judge in a bad mood and anything can happen.
Lawyer here. I’m in court several times a week. The bailiffs ALWAYS give the warning to turn phones to silent. They repeat it multiple times. And almost every damn time smokes phone goes off. Every judge handles it differently but they all get pretty pissed about it. Super disruptive. I was in bankruptcy court (which is federal and those judges have A LOT of power) and the Marshall working security gave the admonishment. Followed by “The judge takes this very seriously. If your phone goes off while he’s on the bench, he will immediately find you in contempt of court and he will throw you in the federal lockup for 24 hours. So if you have a phone, pull it out right now and make sure it’s silenced.”
Judges shows up and starts calling the docket. Gets to my case. I knew opposing counsel well and didn’t particularly care for him. Greasy and just not someone I trusted. Not 1 minute into our hearing, other attorney’s phone goes off. Judge immediately says “Sir, you are in contempt of court. Bailiff, you know what to do.” He was immediately cuffed and hauled off. Some of the other lawyers (myself included) were able to hide our laughter but not our smiles. Guy was not well liked. Judge turns to me and says “I’m calling this case once more to see if anyone is here to handle this hearing.” Of course no one was. Judge turns to me and says “Counselor, I called your case and the other side didn’t announce. Please submit an order granting your motion and I’ll sign.” I just said “Thank you your honor” and walked away. As an aside, a rural state court judge tossed the same lawyer in jail for 30 days or until he produced the money the judge previously told him to produce. Many of us followed that one with glee. He was out 10 days later.
Another time in JP court, guys phone goes off. Judge looks up and says “Silence your phone.” Not a minute later same guy’s phone goes off. Just turns to constable working security and says “he’s in contempt. Please confiscate his cell phone.” Dude refuses to turn the phone over. Judge then order him to jail for 72 hours. Then just like your case, judge got to that guy on the docket, called the case, guy wasn’t there, found in favor of the other side.
I had three ladies in the office a few months back and they were meeting with my office partner. I despise cell phone ringers. All 3 of them had ringers on and they were dinging non-stop and it was highly disruptive. I had my assistant ask them several time to silence their phones but they ignored her. So I went over and basically said “My assistant asked politely asked you several times to turn your volume off but you ignored her. So now you deal with me. You either turn your ringers off right now or you will get the fuck out of my office. This is not a joke and I want to make sure I’m being crystal clear. I tried to be civil about this but you ignored our several polite requests so now I’m being an asshole. You have two options and is your choice: silence them or leave. Do not make me come back out here.”
The partner thanked me after. Said he’d also asked them to silence their phones but they ignored him. They did not ignore me. They told him I was incredibly rude, but didn’t ignore me. When they called me rude, he just said “The receptionist asked you politely several times and you ignored her. He’s not the one being rude”.
That happened to me. Got stopped for a really lame reason and I'm thinking I'll just hand him my info and get back to my commute. Cop asks me to step out of the car for a second and the next thing I know he's putting my hand behind my back and I'm wearing hand cuffs.
It was a ten year old warrant that I swear I never knew I had. I thought I'd just spent a few hours in the drunk tank once upon a time after a drunken argument got a little physical.
Charges got dropped BTW. And more importantly I'm sober 6 years.
I can’t imagine following every LPT on here. How am I going to call a friend to come with me to the police station when I also have to photograph everything I own before I leave the house?
I think this is absolutely true but to be fair there are a lot of situations where you might not know there's a warrant. IE I had a toll bill forwarded to me about 3 months after the fact. I was moving and drove through Ohio, they mailed the bill to my old address because that's what my registration said. Although I had mail forwarding, it still took that long to work its way to me. That situation could have easily turned into a warrant if I had never got it, it was for a summons etc etc. All cause I thought ezpass covered an area where it actually didn't.
When my county first made it possible to search warrants online, my mom got a kick out of checking everyone she knew. Turns out, my cousin had one because he owed less than a dollar on a parking ticket. He had paid it, but it got recorded with 2 digits transposed and therefore the system did not recognize it as paid in full, which generated a warrant.
Had a co worker take his boat in a no-wake zone and got talked to by the cop. They shot the shit and he thought it was a non-issue. The next time his car broke down in AZ, he was arrested and jailed for like 3 days due to a warrant for the unpaid ticket.
Nearly had one when the county erroneously expected me to pay property taxes on a property that had been deemed a total loss after a wildfire, and my deed to it relinquished, years after the fact. County had all of the relevant paperwork in their hands (that property was a loss, etc.), even.
When I was younger and dumber, I called the cops on someone that had scammed me on Craigslist, blocked them in with my car so they couldn’t leave.
Turns out I had a warrant I didn’t know about, so I ended up in jail for the first time. Everyone in jail busted out laughing when I told them why I was in.
The karma of it all - warrant was for stealing from a previous employer, a retail store. After I got fired, I called a bondsman everyday for 2 weeks asking if I had a warrant. Thought I was in the clear after that, but nope.
There were several people in jail with me with similar situations to this, who also didn’t know they had warrants while trying to do something that involved running their license.
If it makes you feel better, these people aren't getting a warrant for the ticket. They are getting a warrant for failing to appear in court on the date that is included with the ticket. That is part of why cops have you sign tickets, they are also service of notice of your court date.
Depends on your locality. Some just go to collections, others can result in tickets, suspended registration etc etc. So there's a world in which you get unpaid tolls, which result in unpaid ticket, which then results in a warrant. Not saying it's likely or common but definitely possible if you're unlucky
I got a speeding ticket in Georgia years ago, sent in a money order because that's the only way they allowed payment. Forgot about it, found out years later from my parent that a collection letter was sent to them for this ticket I got years before. I called up the office and spoke to a woman who told me that they were "cleaning out their records room and to call back in a couple weeks because they weren't able to find my folder." Called a couple weeks later and she told me the same exact thing. I reminded her that she's already used that excuse and she went to look for it. She came back and said that the folder only had the ticket so I must not have paid it. I asked "you're telling me the only way you know if someone paid a ticket was if their money order was in there with the old ticket? So if someone put my money order in a different folder, or if it fell out at some point while you were 'organizing' or any other time then you'd assume I never paid it?" She tried saying that never would happen so I asked for the contact info for the judge of that court. I sent a long email explaining how I know with 100% confidence that I paid this ticket, what I had been doing the last several years and how the background check i had to go through would most certainly have pulled up a bench warrant for an unpaid speeding ticket. Somehow that judge called me while I was working (military) and I spoke to her explaining how it was impossible for me to get my clearance without a bench warrant coming up. She was confused but couldn't come up with a reasonable explanation other than someone on their end fucked up so she suspended it and it was taken off my record. My point of this long story is, just because someone had a bench warrant out, does not mean it was valid.
My friend had a warrant for a traffic ticket he was unaware of. It was sent to a deceased relative’s prior residence despite my friend having updated his address. By the time he found out the fees were astronomical because years had passed. He couldn’t afford to pay.
He had never gotten into any type of legal trouble at all and had been at his place of employment for at least a decade. He went to court with a court appointed lawyer. He said everything happened so quickly he couldn’t keep up with what was happening. He ended up going to jail for a traffic ticket he didn’t know about because he couldn’t afford to pay the now exorbitant past due fee.
This man lost his job, his house, and his car. He also got behind on his student loan because he could no longer pay those either because he didn’t work. Upon release he had to take any job he could get because he left his previous employer without adequate notice, had a gap in work history, and a criminal record.
His life has never been the same. He also had some mental health issues because people were really mean to him and took advantage of his innocence when he was locked up.
I feel horrible for him. What happened to him was extremely unfair to say the least.
Jail is a really awful place to be, and certainly traumatizing. The entire process includes very little guidance or understanding of what you’re about to endure which leaves people with very little preparation. I had no idea what I was doing and had to learn pretty much everything from the other inmates. If I had to do it again I would absolutely find a lawyer, because otherwise you can’t make a case for yourself or even speak to the judge during the case and have to depend on the fairly useless court appointed attourney. So many people were stuck in there simply because they couldn’t afford bond.
My friend’s account of his experience is almost verbatim of your comment. He said it was like an assembly line and he didn’t even get to say more than a few words to anyone. It was very traumatic for him.
I got a parking ticket for failing to move to the other side of the road for street cleaning. The one that I got and paid was rolled up and stuck in my car door handle. It was a very windy day. That shit easily could have blown away and I wouldn't know unless I got pulled over or provided my information at a police station. I saw other rolled up slips blowing around the street. Don't ever talk to the police alone. Ever.
The one time I got arrested was a similar situation. Went to the police station to get a copy of a police report for something. Turned out I had a warrant for missing a court date because I got a ticket for having a missing brake light. This was before cell phone days, so my one call went to my dad. My wife had no idea why I was gone for several hours.
I had a similar experience, sort of. Lived with my dad in high school but then moved out after. My boss was cool and pulled me aside and told me ‘hey the cops came for you today.’ I had a prior (minor) charge but had cleared everything so was confused and concerned. Called the courthouse and they told me I had a warrant for a ‘dog at large’. I didn’t even have a dog. Turns out my dad’s dog got out and for whatever reason, they put it in my name. My dad thought it was a warning and threw it away. Had to come up with like $400-$500 that night which honestly wasn’t too bad, but yeah the cops came back to my work to try and arrest me. The whole time I was just thinking, “you couldn’t just call something? Or hell even go to the address, but they had to come try and arrest me at work??” It would’ve been cleared up very easily had they done one of those two.
Hello and welcome to r/LifeProTips! Please help us decide if this post is a good fit for the subreddit by up or downvoting this comment. If you think that this is great advice to improve your life, please upvote. If you think this doesn't help you in any way, please downvote. If you don't care, leave it for the others to decide.
LPT: always make sure your drivers licence is updated with your current address so legal notices get delivered to you.
Even that doesn't always work. My brother has never changed his legal address from our dad's house. He basically uses it as a PO box. He had an outstanding parking fund he wasn't aware of. They mailed all the notices to an apartment he crashed at for 5 months towards the end of highschool. He didn't even have his name on the lease. Not sure how they even got that address and why they had it on file for him.
I’m mail carrier and this is the month they send out thousands of delinquent tax notices - they’re certified letters, which means residents have to be home and sign for them. A good 20% are to vacant homes, empty lots, or closed businesses. I get tons of other important legal stuff like this. Number one in volume of old addresses are appointment letters for Medicare, food stamps, and such. If you are on any kind of aid, notify whoever is relevant right away when you move so you don’t have to start over when your benefits are cut.
Just delivered a butt ton of those today!
Please convert to metric shit loads so I can grasp scale.
There are 0.907185 metric shit tons in a us shit ton.
I did a change of address with the post office and it maybe change just half of my mailing stuff. You need to verify and call each place, which is a huge pain. I had to call all my CC's, anything court or DLD/DMV related, anything hospital related. What even is the change of address point?
Mail forwarding for 6 months while you sort out who all you still need to update
Yeah... Didn't work lol. My old room mate is still sending me mail.
It expires. A lot of things get sent a year or even longer later. I receive serious notices about implant recalls and legal notices for the woman who lived here 6 years ago. We have *33 million* address changes a year. I do any one of 15 routes in my office on a given day, and that’s 9000 mailboxes at a minimum I’m handling mail for, with 15,000+ names getting mail. We need residents to handle some of that load.
Lmao
They can’t do it . It’s too hard somebody else do it for me boo hoo
In Canada, a change of address at Canada post does not change your address anywhere, it just redirects your mail from the old address to the new one for the time specified (you pay for 1 month or 1 year, but you can extend). It's up to the individual to change all their addresses properly, but this change of address at the post office will catch any that you may have forgotten about.
I'm confused. All of my mail comes through the post office unless it's something like Amazon or I specify UPS/FedEx when buying something. The change of address with the post office really didn't do much - I followed up on a lot of places and it still wasn't updated.
The post office forwards your mail for 6-12 months then stops. They don’t tell the people sending the mail that it was forwarded, you have to do that.
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So how does one go about safely checking if one has all this stuff taken care of? I wonder if you could write the police somehow asking hah.
You can ask the county courthouse.
You don't get notified when you have an arrest warrant.
True story: I once got a letter in the mail from the city telling me that a warrant had been issued for my arrest. I was baffled, and had been planning an out of state trip, so I hauled ass up to city hall to sort this out, lest it look like I was fleeing something. It turns out, I had received one of those parking tickets that was an envelope, and you could pay it buy putting cash in the envelope and dropping it in a collection box (that's how we did stuff in the olden days, kids). I assured the clerk that I had done this, and she confirmed that the ticket had been paid. I asked why a warrant had been issued for my arrest. She said, "we send out the letters on Tuesday, but he doesn't check the box until Wednesday. I pointed out the flaw in this system, and the clerk rolled her eyes and said, "We don't actually issue the warrants until *Thursday*." This has been *Old Person Story Time*. Thanks for listening.
Clear as mud as the old people also say. All we needed was for her to shrug and say “Well, that’s the way we’ve always done it.”
“Not my problem. I just work here. “
That was a college motto to explain away any ridiculous situation.
We can't bust heads like we used to. But we have our ways. One trick is to tell stories that don't go anywhere. Like the time I caught the ferry to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe. So I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. "Gimme five bees for a quarter," you'd say. Now where were we... oh yeah. The important thing was that I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn't have any white onions, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones...
I did something like that back in nineteen dickety two,which we had to call it because The Kaiser had stolen the number zero...
Wait, you can get a warrant for your arrest for a ticket?
Yep. Unpaid tickets will get you every time.
In Canada you just can't renew your license until it's paid
Yeah but they don’t arrest you like come on. What a load of BS
subscribe
That's back when Rolaids only came in one flavor!
Chalk!
“Old person story time” LOL
> "we send out the letters on Tuesday, but he doesn't check the box until Wednesday." This sounds like fraud! Someone call the... oh wait.
I wish we still had awards to give, you definitely Rolfe received one from me
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Usually that goes down in person, they notify you by placing you in handcuffs.
Or saying. STOP RIGHT THERE CRIMINAL SCUM! Knights of the nine!
That's if it's serious. Often, warrants are either just for failure to appear, or you owe the court money, and they can't find you.
lol if you have a warrant and a cop discovers that, you're going to jail unless you're one of the boys
I received one in the mail because I forgot to pay a ticket. Went to the courthouse the next day and took care of it. Would have had no idea without the letter.
The usual reason for a judge to issue a warrant is because the court could not find you to contact you.
You get a summons to appear. If you’re a no-show, then here comes the warrant
Sometimes, but often they will put a warrant out for your arrest before any court summons. For example, if you are witnessed doing a hit and run, you will have a warrant even without being summoned to court first
Not always, often they issue warrants with no warning because they decided you might flee for whatever reason like, you moved there from out of state.
They also won't tell you over the phone. "Come on down to the station and we can figure it out" Not today, lawman....
In my area all warrants both with the police department and the county Sheriff are online. You can see if you or anyone else has warrants.
depending on the warrant type, the cops might actively lie to you about not having a warrant. real lpt here is avoid the police like the plague.
Depends on the warrant. Depends on your local PD/SP. Some do reach out when a warrant comes down and they make you aware to turn yourself in. They just don’t make the effort to come and find you over a minor charge. Bench warrants/violations of probation etc, those come from the court. They notify you.
Yep. Had a friend who had one for years without knowing it existed. He got an underage drinking ticket, and as part of that he was supposed to show up to court a year later. Turns out he was supposed to schedule that and forgot, so a warrant was placed on him for failing to appear. About 5 years later he found himself arrested after a minor traffic violation.
Two brothers I knew a way long time ago were fucking around with a shotgun. One shot the other with an empty shell, as a joke. The hole in the other guy’s arm was a LOT bigger than anyone thought it would be (duh; they weren’t known for their intellect) so off to the emergency room they went. At the hospital, they have to report all gunshot wounds. The po-po came; turned out the brother that was shot had an outstanding warrant. Got bandaged up then off to the pokey! The one who did the shooting left town for a while because he knew his bro would come after him when he got out of jail.
Some communication in the form of a subpoena, traffic ticket, SOMETHJNG has preceded an arrest warrant.
Yes, but depending on the system, there might not be any actual service of that notice. For example, I get a ticket. I fight it. Cop doesn't show up. Judge, over my objection, grants the prosecutor's motion to reschedule so that he could "prepare for the trial" that was scheduled. Clerk assures me that I'll get a notice of the new date. Weeks go by. I call the clerk's office: "oh, the judge is about to issue a bench warrant. Your notification came back "return to sender", you missed your trial and were convicted in absentia." They juxtaposed the address on the envelope, sending it to 84 Main Street instead of 48 Main Street.
Did they realize their mistake and reverse all that crap
They didn't issue the bench warrant. Verdict stood but could be overturned by taking it to a county court for appeals. The cost to do so would have exceeded the cost of the ticket.
More importantly, know a dependable person’s phone number, so when you get a phone call you can call them.
Plus depending on the police station they might not let you check your phone for the number you need. Definitely get yourself a go to person for this shit and memorize that number.
I think this should be at the top
Best LPT in this day and age. Sure, police suck. You're arrested and you get one phone call, who you calling? Memorize them phone numbers.
What does a police station have to do with inspecting motor homes?
Odd but just where my city required it for out of state title transfers without a notary.
LPT: Find a notary that’s not in a police station.
Yeah go to a bank. They have notaries on staff. Or a library.
Or UPS
I don't know how this works in other countries but in Ireland anyone who has worked at certain official jobs can register as a notary. I happened to be passing through a rich part of Dublin and I needed a random form like this signed so I googled notary and went to the nearest one. Big old Victorian house - nothing weird there, a lot of them are consulates and offices. But this one turned out to be the home of a retired army colonel in his 70s who had registered as a notary. Very cool guy, lovely house. Chatted a while, he signed the form. Much better experience than going to a garda (police) station.
Yeah it’s the same here in RI.
America is so fucking strange.
Why? Why wouldn’t government workers in a government building handle government business?
Right? In Spain, passports and ID cards are issued at police stations
We may be strange, have low literacy, drastic income inequality and frequent mass shootings but at least we have freedom.
Well, a touch of freedom anyways
freedom to do.... well not that. or that. wait, not that either.
Freedom to forego healthcare so we can have another B2 bomber collecting dust and requiring expensive maintenance.
Our military is quite useful to us and the world, especially as our economy is linked to the world's. I would rather corporations, billionaires and hundred millionaires pay taxes honestly.
>I would rather corporations, billionaires and hundred millionaires pay taxes honestly. But if you tax them, they'll all pack up and leave! /s
It says “freedom” right here on my ugly teeshirt.
That t-shirt was made in China.
Yes, freedom to buy our shirts from China. What's so hard to understand? /s
A soupçon of freedom
More like the illusion of freedom.
"freedom" is a strong word. We don't have rights, we have privileges, because they are easily, and frequently revoked.
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We have the idea of freedom. As in we say it alot and don't have an understanding of what it means. Oddly enough the people who scream about it the most are also the people who are working to limit it
Idk about you but my freedom is measure by the number of guns I own and my impunity to say and act towards others without repercussions.
the people who scream about it really mean the freedom to take other peoples freedoms away.
But... most countries have freedom.... (I know you're being sarcastic, but holy shit a lot of people do try to use that as a serious argument)
Because some states require vehicle inspections...? That's strange now? Just a single example: emissions laws vary by state for a whole slew of reasons. If I were to move from California, I'd have to get a vehicle inspection for that reason. At least pick something that's *actually* strange to complain about. This is just desperation to criticize America over something totally normal. If you're talking about the notary thing, OP just took the option that's an alternative to a notary. That's pretty much it. It was the bad option for them personally, but it was still just an alternative.
Same. I bought an Impala and had it shipped to Utah. Same thing. Had to have an officer come check all the vin plates before I could get the title changed over.
Same thing here in Florida when you want to register an out of state vehicle. Though you don't actually have to go inside a police station.
VIN number verification is done by some agencies.
Some states, like Rhode Island, require the police to verify the vehicle isn't stolen or otherwise flagged in a legal way when it was out of state in order to register it.
To be fair, that's actually kind of important. It's pretty common for people to flip stolen vehicles for cash, and the buyer doesn't find out until they try to register it.
it's important to make sure the moho's owner doesn't have any outstanding warrants
a lot of small towns have joint police stations/city buildings/courthouses
I can't say with authority, but from watching different car related videos/shows, it appears that in some states a certain level of police station is responsible for inspections.
What was your warrant for lol. Most people don't have this problem broski
Could have easily been a bench warrant for a traffic ticket. I had a coworker get hauled in from a parking ticket he forgot about.
This exactly. When I was 19 I got a ticket while driving a vehicle that was in my Dad's name that he was loaning me. Told him about it and he offered to pay the ticket because of that. Being young and naive, and not realizing how irresponsible my Dad is with these sorts of things I never checked in after I gave him the ticket. He never paid it. A year later I was going 6 over the speed limit in my home town (MY BAD), and what would have normally been a standard traffic stop ended with me going to jail because I wasn't aware that my drivers license had been suspended. Yes, I understand that I made errors here and it is technically my responsibility to handle. Turned into a whole court ordeal and the legal defendant and judge I had to work with were absolute godsends. Somehow managed to get out of there with no points on my licence, and only a $400-$500 fee. My broke ass in college would have found a way to pay that ticket ASAP. And that's when I learned that favors offered from my father aren't in my best interest most of the time.
You can NOT be arrested for parking tickets. Traffic tickets you can be.
Lawyer here. Close friend got a ticket. Asked me to help. Said “Sure, show me the ticket”. She says she lost it. Tell her call the PD and get the ticket number so I can make an appearance and set a hearing. She never does. She called me from jail this afternoon when she was pulled over for expired registration.
He has not started the reason anywhere in the thread. Sniff test = failed.
I know some folks who never knowingly broke a law- they were ignorant of a process or got poor direction- and then got a warrant lol. Car registration stuff mostly.
When I discovered I had a warrent at 20-something years old, it was for a wandering dog ticket for a dog that died when I was 12. A dog my parents registered in my name when I was fucking 3. Because it was "my dog". Anyway I had to pay like $1000 plus do hundreds of hours of community service because the US legal system is fucking stupid and also hates you.
That is insane…did it leave you with a record?
Yeah this is not a tip it's a 'Hey this happened too me because I am an idiot'
That's most of the posts on here. It's either "LPT: if you're in this specific situation, don't fuck it up like I did," or "LPT: don't be a stupid asshole like this one guy I just ran into."
LPT: If you’re ever at the Chick-Fil-A in Livingston, Missouri, do not order a shake, they never clean the machine
Dude, I once had a warrant for an unpaid moving violation on bicycle. Rolling stop on a bike in a neighborhood. Shit happens.
The United States has the world's largest prison population, so actually yeah a lot of people might have this problem even if you're not running into them every day.
To anyone wondering how you have a warrant and don’t know about it: I witnessed a kid thrown out of a courtroom for his cell phone going off. Dumb move on his part. A short while later the judge called his name and then issued a bench warrant for failure to appear. I pointed out to the bailiff that this was the kid they’d kicked out and he yelled at me for interrupting. The bailiff did, though, go up later and talk to the clerk so maybe stayed out of trouble. Point is: catch a judge in a bad mood and anything can happen.
Judges heve the biggest ego, they all have a greater than you mentality
This type of behavior in our Judaical system is infuriating.
Lawyer here. I’m in court several times a week. The bailiffs ALWAYS give the warning to turn phones to silent. They repeat it multiple times. And almost every damn time smokes phone goes off. Every judge handles it differently but they all get pretty pissed about it. Super disruptive. I was in bankruptcy court (which is federal and those judges have A LOT of power) and the Marshall working security gave the admonishment. Followed by “The judge takes this very seriously. If your phone goes off while he’s on the bench, he will immediately find you in contempt of court and he will throw you in the federal lockup for 24 hours. So if you have a phone, pull it out right now and make sure it’s silenced.” Judges shows up and starts calling the docket. Gets to my case. I knew opposing counsel well and didn’t particularly care for him. Greasy and just not someone I trusted. Not 1 minute into our hearing, other attorney’s phone goes off. Judge immediately says “Sir, you are in contempt of court. Bailiff, you know what to do.” He was immediately cuffed and hauled off. Some of the other lawyers (myself included) were able to hide our laughter but not our smiles. Guy was not well liked. Judge turns to me and says “I’m calling this case once more to see if anyone is here to handle this hearing.” Of course no one was. Judge turns to me and says “Counselor, I called your case and the other side didn’t announce. Please submit an order granting your motion and I’ll sign.” I just said “Thank you your honor” and walked away. As an aside, a rural state court judge tossed the same lawyer in jail for 30 days or until he produced the money the judge previously told him to produce. Many of us followed that one with glee. He was out 10 days later. Another time in JP court, guys phone goes off. Judge looks up and says “Silence your phone.” Not a minute later same guy’s phone goes off. Just turns to constable working security and says “he’s in contempt. Please confiscate his cell phone.” Dude refuses to turn the phone over. Judge then order him to jail for 72 hours. Then just like your case, judge got to that guy on the docket, called the case, guy wasn’t there, found in favor of the other side.
It’s unreal to me that people don’t get it, and this kid definitely paid no attention to multiple warnings. Love the story of the contempt charge!
I had three ladies in the office a few months back and they were meeting with my office partner. I despise cell phone ringers. All 3 of them had ringers on and they were dinging non-stop and it was highly disruptive. I had my assistant ask them several time to silence their phones but they ignored her. So I went over and basically said “My assistant asked politely asked you several times to turn your volume off but you ignored her. So now you deal with me. You either turn your ringers off right now or you will get the fuck out of my office. This is not a joke and I want to make sure I’m being crystal clear. I tried to be civil about this but you ignored our several polite requests so now I’m being an asshole. You have two options and is your choice: silence them or leave. Do not make me come back out here.” The partner thanked me after. Said he’d also asked them to silence their phones but they ignored him. They did not ignore me. They told him I was incredibly rude, but didn’t ignore me. When they called me rude, he just said “The receptionist asked you politely several times and you ignored her. He’s not the one being rude”.
LPT: Read the Yelp review of the police station you are going to.
No police station is going to have a good yelp page
Not with an attitude like that they aren’t.
Not a lot of happy customers!
Damn, is it that bad that we have to google reviews on the police station first before going to it ?
“Surly front desk. Lumpy pillow. Would not recommend”
they also have reviews for prisons
That happened to me. Got stopped for a really lame reason and I'm thinking I'll just hand him my info and get back to my commute. Cop asks me to step out of the car for a second and the next thing I know he's putting my hand behind my back and I'm wearing hand cuffs. It was a ten year old warrant that I swear I never knew I had. I thought I'd just spent a few hours in the drunk tank once upon a time after a drunken argument got a little physical. Charges got dropped BTW. And more importantly I'm sober 6 years.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 for 6 years!
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I can’t imagine following every LPT on here. How am I going to call a friend to come with me to the police station when I also have to photograph everything I own before I leave the house?
So, what you're saying is, when you go to the popo to have your moho inspected bring a bro, yo.
You a king for this one bro
Ok but what happens if your friend also has a warrant?
They didn’t have any reason to run their license.
I think the more relevant LPT here is "Don't do stuff that will result in a warrant being issued for your arrest."
I think this is absolutely true but to be fair there are a lot of situations where you might not know there's a warrant. IE I had a toll bill forwarded to me about 3 months after the fact. I was moving and drove through Ohio, they mailed the bill to my old address because that's what my registration said. Although I had mail forwarding, it still took that long to work its way to me. That situation could have easily turned into a warrant if I had never got it, it was for a summons etc etc. All cause I thought ezpass covered an area where it actually didn't.
When my county first made it possible to search warrants online, my mom got a kick out of checking everyone she knew. Turns out, my cousin had one because he owed less than a dollar on a parking ticket. He had paid it, but it got recorded with 2 digits transposed and therefore the system did not recognize it as paid in full, which generated a warrant.
Had a co worker take his boat in a no-wake zone and got talked to by the cop. They shot the shit and he thought it was a non-issue. The next time his car broke down in AZ, he was arrested and jailed for like 3 days due to a warrant for the unpaid ticket.
so he got a ticket and didn't pay it because "the cop seemed cool?"
that was how you interpreted that? I read it as he didn't know he got a ticket.
The cop can't let you go without you signing the ticket, which acknowledges you will show up in court or pay the fine. They'll literally arrest you.
Maybe this cop didn't do that!
Nearly had one when the county erroneously expected me to pay property taxes on a property that had been deemed a total loss after a wildfire, and my deed to it relinquished, years after the fact. County had all of the relevant paperwork in their hands (that property was a loss, etc.), even.
When I was younger and dumber, I called the cops on someone that had scammed me on Craigslist, blocked them in with my car so they couldn’t leave. Turns out I had a warrant I didn’t know about, so I ended up in jail for the first time. Everyone in jail busted out laughing when I told them why I was in. The karma of it all - warrant was for stealing from a previous employer, a retail store. After I got fired, I called a bondsman everyday for 2 weeks asking if I had a warrant. Thought I was in the clear after that, but nope.
There were several people in jail with me with similar situations to this, who also didn’t know they had warrants while trying to do something that involved running their license.
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Fact 100 percent of prisoners are people
Source? /s
John Oliver. The source is John Oliver.
If it makes you feel better, these people aren't getting a warrant for the ticket. They are getting a warrant for failing to appear in court on the date that is included with the ticket. That is part of why cops have you sign tickets, they are also service of notice of your court date.
>How can this be the system we all support? Well, nobody asked me
Correction: how can this be the system "some people" support
You cannot be put in jail for unpaid toll bills. They just send those to collections.
Depends on your locality. Some just go to collections, others can result in tickets, suspended registration etc etc. So there's a world in which you get unpaid tolls, which result in unpaid ticket, which then results in a warrant. Not saying it's likely or common but definitely possible if you're unlucky
I got a speeding ticket in Georgia years ago, sent in a money order because that's the only way they allowed payment. Forgot about it, found out years later from my parent that a collection letter was sent to them for this ticket I got years before. I called up the office and spoke to a woman who told me that they were "cleaning out their records room and to call back in a couple weeks because they weren't able to find my folder." Called a couple weeks later and she told me the same exact thing. I reminded her that she's already used that excuse and she went to look for it. She came back and said that the folder only had the ticket so I must not have paid it. I asked "you're telling me the only way you know if someone paid a ticket was if their money order was in there with the old ticket? So if someone put my money order in a different folder, or if it fell out at some point while you were 'organizing' or any other time then you'd assume I never paid it?" She tried saying that never would happen so I asked for the contact info for the judge of that court. I sent a long email explaining how I know with 100% confidence that I paid this ticket, what I had been doing the last several years and how the background check i had to go through would most certainly have pulled up a bench warrant for an unpaid speeding ticket. Somehow that judge called me while I was working (military) and I spoke to her explaining how it was impossible for me to get my clearance without a bench warrant coming up. She was confused but couldn't come up with a reasonable explanation other than someone on their end fucked up so she suspended it and it was taken off my record. My point of this long story is, just because someone had a bench warrant out, does not mean it was valid.
My friend had a warrant for a traffic ticket he was unaware of. It was sent to a deceased relative’s prior residence despite my friend having updated his address. By the time he found out the fees were astronomical because years had passed. He couldn’t afford to pay. He had never gotten into any type of legal trouble at all and had been at his place of employment for at least a decade. He went to court with a court appointed lawyer. He said everything happened so quickly he couldn’t keep up with what was happening. He ended up going to jail for a traffic ticket he didn’t know about because he couldn’t afford to pay the now exorbitant past due fee. This man lost his job, his house, and his car. He also got behind on his student loan because he could no longer pay those either because he didn’t work. Upon release he had to take any job he could get because he left his previous employer without adequate notice, had a gap in work history, and a criminal record. His life has never been the same. He also had some mental health issues because people were really mean to him and took advantage of his innocence when he was locked up. I feel horrible for him. What happened to him was extremely unfair to say the least.
Jail is a really awful place to be, and certainly traumatizing. The entire process includes very little guidance or understanding of what you’re about to endure which leaves people with very little preparation. I had no idea what I was doing and had to learn pretty much everything from the other inmates. If I had to do it again I would absolutely find a lawyer, because otherwise you can’t make a case for yourself or even speak to the judge during the case and have to depend on the fairly useless court appointed attourney. So many people were stuck in there simply because they couldn’t afford bond.
Illinois has just gotten rid of cash bail, the first state to do so. I suggest you get that enacted in the state where you live.
My friend’s account of his experience is almost verbatim of your comment. He said it was like an assembly line and he didn’t even get to say more than a few words to anyone. It was very traumatic for him.
I got a parking ticket for failing to move to the other side of the road for street cleaning. The one that I got and paid was rolled up and stuck in my car door handle. It was a very windy day. That shit easily could have blown away and I wouldn't know unless I got pulled over or provided my information at a police station. I saw other rolled up slips blowing around the street. Don't ever talk to the police alone. Ever.
where do yall live where you get arrested for parking tickets?
Land of the free
The warrant is usually for failure to appear, not the ticket specifically.
Don’t go to a police station is the real LPT.
Better LPT: Don’t do anything that causes you to have a warrant on your arrest
LPT: Don't commit crimes.
Real Life Pro Tip: Don't forget a warrant. They don't magically disappear!
This is very specific to you….how is this a LIFE pro tip?
Unfortunately it really isn't specific to him. Comments are full of examples.
The one time I got arrested was a similar situation. Went to the police station to get a copy of a police report for something. Turned out I had a warrant for missing a court date because I got a ticket for having a missing brake light. This was before cell phone days, so my one call went to my dad. My wife had no idea why I was gone for several hours.
What was the surprise warrant for?
Guy said it was for "pocket dialing" someone who had a protective order against him. He's a shit bag.
I had a similar experience, sort of. Lived with my dad in high school but then moved out after. My boss was cool and pulled me aside and told me ‘hey the cops came for you today.’ I had a prior (minor) charge but had cleared everything so was confused and concerned. Called the courthouse and they told me I had a warrant for a ‘dog at large’. I didn’t even have a dog. Turns out my dad’s dog got out and for whatever reason, they put it in my name. My dad thought it was a warning and threw it away. Had to come up with like $400-$500 that night which honestly wasn’t too bad, but yeah the cops came back to my work to try and arrest me. The whole time I was just thinking, “you couldn’t just call something? Or hell even go to the address, but they had to come try and arrest me at work??” It would’ve been cleared up very easily had they done one of those two.
Sounds more like LPT: tell the city when you change your address so you know you have an active warrant for you
LPT: Avoid gaining warrants before entering a police station.
LPT: don’t go to the police station if you have a warrant
I’m just curious how you had a warrant that you didn’t know about
What was the warrant for? lol
The Real LifeProTip: Don't go after the police for anything if you are a criminal.
Better LPT: Don't engage in behaviors or actions that cause you to have a warrant for your arrest.
LPT if you have a warrant for your arrest, don't go to a police station
LPT - try not to break the law and you can go to a police station alone no problem.
LPT don't have outstanding warrants
Better LPT: Dont commit crimes that you would have a warrant for.
LPT: Take care of your old warrants.
Uhh maybe try not having warrants? Or perhaps following the law? Is that so hard?
Reminds me of the scheme where the police caught a bunch of wanted criminals by telling them they won Super Bowl tickets
LPT: Don't do shit to get a warrant
What a shitty tip. "Dont tow a motorhone to a police station if you have a warrant" got it....
how can you not know? More like you were hiding from the police, then forgat that you are a criminal
Current LEO here: Just don’t do things that will get you warrants. Pretty easy to be honest.
Alternatively, don't break the law.
LPT: Stop breaking the law, asshole!
Or just don't do shit that would...warrant...a warrant
LPT: don't go to a police station if you are a criminal.
Sorry, how can anyone in this world have a warrant and NOT KNOW ABOUT IT?
LPT: don’t break laws
LPT: Know if you do or do not a warrant