Old Vanity License Plate Haunts Previous Owner
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FORT WORTH (CBS11) - The citations kept coming, and one Forney woman never saw it coming.
The vanity license plates on one of her old cars came back to haunt her, and this mystery took CBS11 from one side of the Metroplex to the other.
There are still some unanswered questions, but one thing that is clear, is that black hearse with the license plate, "TODIE4" parked in a Fort Worth backyard does not belong to the woman who got the bill for its citations.
When Melinda Ramsey owned her blue Dodge Challenger, she wanted to make a statement with her license plate.
"I just thought it was a cool plate for my car," Ramsey said.
But when she traded in the car back in 2013, she also discontinued the "TODIE4" vanity plate and threw it in the trash.
A couple of weeks ago she got a notice of unpaid parking tickets, and she worried someone had gone dumpster diving and stolen her old plates.
"My worst case scenario is that this vehicle is driving around with the plates I used to own and is going to be involved in illegal activity," Ramsey said.
Ramsey assured the municipal court that she no longer had the vanity plates, but days later she received another notice, this time listing two citations.
"I said, you know, how many more citations could I get, and she says, as long as the guy is doing things that aren't right, and somebody spots him, the citations will come to you," Ramsey said.
Ramsey gave CBS11 the Fort Worth address where the citations were given, and that's where the vintage black hearse was, parked in the backyard still sporting the "TODIE4" plates.
But the white background and the "Classic Auto" logo were clearly different from the black background on Ramsey's old plates, ruling out theft of her physical plates.
"All I want is my name to be removed, disconnected, off of these plates," Ramsey said.
Fort Worth Police said it is legal to keep the car in the backyard but a violation to park in the front or side of the yard, which is why it was cited.
CBS11 spoke to the man who lives where the hearse is parked.
He said he is in the process of buying the car from the owner and moved the car into the backyard to avoid getting more citations. R
Ramsey, meanwhile believes she won't have to pay any of the tickets.