I picked up my mail yesterday, and in there was a letter from ICBC-- the licensing bureaucrats in British Columbia. I figured it was the renewal form for insurance on my scooter. Boy was I wrong.
Turns out my driver’s license has been suspended for the past 2 months, and will be for the next ten, because I was caught driving drunk in Alberta last August!!! [<---- Note extreme emotion indicated by multiple exclamation marks]
After my heart exploded through my chest, I called ICBC to plead my case.
I have never been to Alberta, and still wasn’t there last August.
I would never drink and drive. In fact, I had letters published in both local rags two weeks ago stating that fact (something about the fine example Premier Campbell was setting in Maui ).
Opal is my passenger on the highway of life.
Sure enough, they admitted that some sort of filing error had been made, although they’re not telling me what kind just yet. Supposedly it’s going to be expunged from my record today, but I keep wondering:
What the hell would have happened if I went through a checkpoint in the past two months after my license was suspended?
I got a very hostile letter once from my insurance company for not reporting an accident. Correction: my parents got the hostile letter, but I was reported to be the driver.
My parents asked me if I had at any time been driving in the city indicated (about 90 minutes from our town). They didn’t think I had, but what were they to think. I felt sick, even though I hadn’t done anything.
Turns out it was my third cousin, who shares me name. Someone filed the “points” or whatever against my driving record instead of hers. Thanks, people, for being so careful! Yipes.
At least you got the situation resolved quickly. I’d be sure to follow up a few days later to make sure it really was expunged - wouldn’t want that coming up later during a job search.
If you’d gotten pulled over at a checkpoint, my guess is possibly a night in jail, and definitely a bigger headache sorting out the mess.
I have since discovered the true meaning of ‘close enough for government work.’
It turns out that whoever did data entry on the BC side was a slacker, and when entering the information sent from Alberta, didn’t bother to check the perp’s middle name. The first and last name were a match, which means that some fool out there with my moniker doesn’t know when to quit. And has been driving around since November with a suspended license.
Icky-bicky has corrected the mistake-- expunged my record-- and sent me a corrected driver’s record that is completely clean. Huzzah!
Now, I’m off to a wine tasting tonight. On the BUS!
I read the thread title, and (like some others here) was getting all ready to yell at you Barbarian, but I’m glad to see it was all a misunderstanding!
I once received a parking ticket from the city of Chicago.
I had never been to Chicago.
The info on the ticket was for my first car, a white Ford Escort with the current (at that time) tag.
The date on the ticket was six months before I bought the car and got that license plate for it.
Fortunately it was a quick phone call to clear it up.
I guess Chi-town was looking to get a bit of extra revenue from the people who would pay the ticket just to have it gone instead of trying to fight it.
Gah, that’s something you don’t want dogging you around. That’s a Criminal Code conviction, as well as being a 50% increase on your insurance (in Alberta, anyway, I don’t know Icky Bicky rules). I was all set to come in here and chastise you for acting so very out of character.
Glad they’ve cleared it up. I hope you have it in writing, so that the next time someone pulls your driving abstract and there’s a ghost of it, you will have proof that it wasn’t you.
The irony is that two weeks ago I had letters published in the local rags condemning drinking and driving. In the past I have even caused physical harm to those who should not be driving in order to take their keys away.
