Nassau Co. goes after parking ticket offenders

NASSAU COUNTY

They are going to be driving around with a special van that reads license plates on parked cars and giving out more tickets.

For people like Jennifer it's even worse.

Starting next Monday, if the scofflaw patrol sniffs out her car, which has more than three outstanding tickets, she'll get the boot.

A boot is a giant yellow lock that freezes a car in place, until its owner pays up.

"I guess I'm going be riding my bike to work and school," Jennifer said.

County leaders announced a partnership with a company called Paylock, which will troll Nassau's roads with a rack full of boots, ready to immobilize any scofflaw it finds.

If caught, you'll have 48 hours to pay or they'll just tow your car.

"For those that are in a rush and want to get back on their way, we can give them a code to take the boot off themselves. They're just required to return it," an official said.

With busted budgets, Nassau County is desperate to settle hundreds of thousands of unpaid tickets from the past two decades.

It adds up to more than $64 million in traffic violations, more than $30 million in parking tickets, and almost $3 million in red light violations.

But, they're going after only the people with three or more unpaid fines.

The county executive himself admits many cases are so old, they're simply uncollectable.

"We have looked into many of these cases some of them you know the cars may not even be there the cars may not even be in Nassau County," Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano said.

"We all have such busy lives and we're running around like lunatics, why get us for one more thing?" a resident asked.

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