After spending hours at the Brooklyn Dept of Finance to wait for my number to be called and to see clerks, processors, supervisors, judges, senior judges, back to the other window people and so on.



Also after spending hours re-arguing my case, traveling on the B57 bus back and forth twice from the tow pound and downtown... I finally got tired and surrendered to their request to have me pay my back fines of $233.



The summons that was ticketed for where my disabled truck had died, and resulted in them looking me up for past fines, was dismissed due to technicality. They listed my vehicle type as "SUBN", when it is indeed registered as "P/U", a pickup. This resulted in the no charge "N/C" dismissal of the normal $185 plus $20 per day storage fees normally incurred to retrieve a vehicle from the NYPD Tow Pound. So that saved me $185.



However, when it was ticketed, they also marked it as a "targeted tow". This is a program in the city dept of finance that allows them to tow you if you are parked illegally and also have over $100 of "in judgment" unpaid parking tickets.



Normally, if you have unpaid tickets under $350, nothing happens. If you go over that limit (as stipulated on the NY Finance website), your vehicle "may be subject to tow."



Usually, at that level, the tow can be from a legal parking spot as well. Private contractors can drive around neighborhoods, looking at plates and running a list. When these guys tow you as an NYPD "marshal" representative, they charge you more than a $300 "tow charge" before you can get your car back. Not the mere $178 city charge. What a lucrative gig, this towing business.



I look up my license plate all the time to manage my tickets and make sure I am not over $350 and eligible for towing marshal pickup. But, like they told me, there is some rule that allows them to look you up for plus $100 and execute a "target tow".



I argued that since the original infraction for illegal parking, upon which all the resulting actions were predicated, is judged to be dismissed and deemed invalid, then all resulting rules and decisions are indeed non valid and unenforceable.



Therefore, the New York Department of Finance cannot enforce action on me to pay my back tickets per their "targeted tow" rules because the reason for the tow was nullified. I should have been free and clear to simply retrieve my truck, while containing to maintain my responsibility to eventually pay the $233 in back fines.



I finally waived my hands in surrender to the clerk that had offered me all the people she knew of that could make a decision in my favor. She acknowledged my valiant efforts, but neither she nor any other were convinced on my logical analysis of technical grounds for dismissal of the enforcement.



So, now the truck sits in Queens... waiting for the garage to tell me what is wrong with it. And how much it will cost??