So 18 months ago I was in the process of moving back to Utah from Arizona. I was going back and forth quite a bit and my Arizona license plates happen to expire. naturally I did not renew them because I knew I was moving to Utah. But during one of my trips to Utah, I was parked downtown and the parking enforcement guy noticed I had expired Arizona plates. So he ticketed me, even though my plates were out of state. I could have been here on vacation or visiting family. And I did not have a house here yet at that point.

So I ignored the ticket. Much to my surprise I received a follow-up notice in Arizona. I again ignored the ticket because I knew we would be leaving that Arizona address soon anyway. Coincidently, we then moved to Utah. Much to my bigger surprise, I received another follow up notice at my new Utah address. Wow, they were not going to let this go. But I didn't care because I now had the car registered in Utah, so as far as I was concerned it was no longer the tainted Arizona car. And I was 1/2 right. When I registered the car in Utah that did NOT trigger a notification in their system that the car was back in the state.

A year went by and I forgot all about it. Then, last Sunday night at 8:00, I was served papers at my address. They weren't going to let this go. Yep, Sunday at 8 PM.

The joke is on me because I don't really have a defense. Apparently state 1 can ticket you for an expired registration even if you and your car are from state 2. In my view it's none of state 1's business whether or not I allowed my registration in state 2 to expire. If I'm not a resident of their state it's none of their business. But apparently if you're parked on city property and the parking guy notices, you're exposed. I have no idea whether or not the police or highway patrol do the same thing.

And yes, my $50 ticket is now $200.