Article from: www.thenewspaper.com/news/16/1619.asp

2/23/2007

Baltimore, Maryland Seizes, Sells Vehicle Over Three Parking Tickets
Baltimore, Maryland seizes and sells a $6700 pickup over three parking tickets.

Baltimore, Maryland seized and sold a woman's truck because it had received three parking tickets. After Kelly Watson, 32, failed to pay the tickets, the city had her 1999 Ford F-250 pickup seized on September 26, 2006. Although Watson immediately filed a stolen vehicle report with the Baltimore Police Department, nobody informed Watson that it was the city that had taken her vehicle. After 45 days passed, the city auctioned off the $6700 truck for $2500.

"I'm still in shock," Watson told The Baltimore Examiner. "I can't believe I lost my car for a couple of parking tickets."

The city insisted it acted properly because it was owed $574 in fees and fines from the parking tickets. It also produced a document, later proven to have been a forgery, claiming that Watson had been properly notified of the seizure.

City Councilman Jack Young is looking to scale back the city's car seizure business at a March 1 hearing.

Source: City takes, then sells womans truck (Baltimore Examiner (MD), 2/23/2007)

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