violations. I had never in my life been to Mobile, Alabama. So I took the day off and drove down (about 4 hours). Turns out this was simply to stand in the long line to make an initial appearance before a judge to take 30 seconds (max) to either plead guilty or not guilty. I pled not guilty and so had another court date set.

I took that day off work, drove down again. Some of the people I had discussed this with both in and outside the court system thought it may be a case of identity theft. I wasn’t so sure. The details made me suspect that it was a clerical data input error. The judge believed me, but quickly went with identity theft as the likely issue and let me off/had everything canceled. I decided not to pursue my opinion further at that point.

While in line on the first court date, I was chatting with the guy behind me. He was from Atlanta and also had never been to Mobile.