On the warrant out for my arrest!

Yes, there was a warrant out for my arrest.  Allow me to 'splain:

In June of 2010 I was driving down W.44th when I came upon the "intersection" for a high school that was being newly constructed.  There was a stop sign and I came to a very near stop and then continued on.  On the West coast this is called a "California stop".  The operator of blue and red flashing lights called it a traffic violation.

My court date was set for July 7th.  Since I was working from home back then I had plenty of time to go down to the courthouse, so on the 28th of June I ran down there and paid my fine.  I could have waited all day in court on my stated trial date in hopes of reducing the fine, but I've never had good luck with that.  The one and only other time I got a ticket (for turning left just before 6pm at a stop that clearly read "no left turn between 7am and 6pm), I was forced by the judge to apologize, loudly and in a long repeated refrain, to the entire court.  I decided to avoid court in Cleveland.  Well, the fine was paid and forgotten.

Flash forward to just a couple weeks ago.  In the mail I received a letter from the Bureau of Motor Vehicles saying I was now blocked from getting my license renewed or any vehicle registered in the state due to the warrant that had been issued for my arrest.

You must know I was immediately panicked.  I consider myself a "goody-two-shoes".  I don't do drugs, I very rarely drink alcohol, and so on.  I believe in abiding by the law, with the exception of only a few tickets (I've gotten five in my life and one was from one of those cameras).

I got on the inter-webs and tracked down the case number listed on the paperwork.  Sure enough my case popped up claiming I had not showed up for my court date, and never paid the fines.  With two years of fees stacked up on the original fine I was now looking at quite a large sum, not to mention the fees from the BMV for reinstatement.  I was on pins and needles.

Luckily I had only regularly used one solitary credit card back in 2010.  A quick call to the card company and I was being sent (via agonizing snail mail) a copy of June 2010's statement showing the paid fine.

A few days later I was driving to work in the morning when I was suddenly pulled over.  Apparently, according to the police officer, I was doing 35 in a 25 zone.  Since the zone was a "Hospital Zone" it wouldn't count as a speeding ticket.  In fact, it would now count as "reckless driving" and I would be thrown in jail and my car towed.  I decided not to inform the officer that there was a warrant out for my arrest.  I crossed my fingers he was not going to run my license and I put on my best "doe eyed" ignoramus act.  He handed me back my license and I was free to go with a verbal warning.  Close call.

So tonight I finally had my paperwork in hand.  I went down to the courthouse and displayed my credit card statement proudly.  The nice woman looked up my case number and discovered that the case had somehow been logged twice.  One showed the fine paid, the other showed a warrant for my arrest.

She assured me it would be taken care of, gave me a signed and sealed paper proving the file was incorrect and sent me on my way.

Thus ends a tale of one of America's most wanted men: Bud Perry, alias Bud "the Rascal" Perry.