WASHINGTON — A Maryland man says he's on the hook for a D.C. speeding ticket that was clocked when an alleged thief was driving his stolen car.
"Park my car on Friday, go out, and then Saturday...it's just not there," James Pildis said.
Pildis's car was gone, and his trouble was just starting.
About a month after his car was stolen, a ticket from a $150 D.C. speeding camera came in the mail.
"The car was stolen about a week or so before the ticket," Pildis said. "You know, I figured, 'Okay, well, it's an automatic system. I just need to show them the police report, and that'll be the end of that.'"
But it wasn't. Pildis tried to contest the ticket, but the DMV wanted more information.
A department spokesperson for the DMV tells WUSA9 the hearing examiner gave Pildis ten additional days to provide a police report that included the vehicle make, vehicle identification number, and license plate number.
And says they have no record he ever did that.
The plates and make of the car are visible on the ticket. And Pildis says he gave them the VIN.
But, he says the hearing examiner wanted more.
"A written statement from the two officers that reported when the car was stolen and a third statement from the officer who found the vehicle about two weeks after all this had happened," Pildis said.
He says he could only track down one of the officers to get a supplemental statement that was really no different than the original police report.
Pildis says he contacted the hearing administrator with what information he could gather.
"That that's when the judge, or whatever the proper term for it, told me, no, like someone has to pay this ticket,'" Pildis said.
He said the hearing administrator told him he was responsible for the ticket and told him, "that's the cost of owning a vehicle."
With the cost of losing one adding up - with rental cars and PTO for DMV hearings - Pildis gave up and just paid the ticket before the fine could double.
"It's bad enough that it happens, but I think it's worse that it's inconsistent because depending on which judge you get, it sounds like that impacts if it gets dismissed," Pildis said.
The DMV says because Pildis paid the ticket the case is closed and there is nothing more they can do.
And, the agency says he should have gotten info in the mail on his options for appeal.