Parked in Italy, sped in Switzerland

On the subject “Traffic Ticket from Overseas” (April ’15, pg. 39), I have two experiences to share.

• After enjoying a few hours of wandering around Siena, Italy, in September 2009, I returned to my rental car to find a ticket on the windshield. I looked around and saw a sign that said these parking spaces were reserved for cars with permits, something which, of course, I didn’t have.

The ticket was for approximately €35 (near $39). I dropped the ticket into my purse. After returning home, I found the ticket and wrote a personal check (adding on the appropriate amount for the exchange rate), then mailed it to the address on the ticket.

Finally, after seven months, the check was processed through my bank. I have often wished I had been a little bird following that check. It probably had an interesting journey.

• A few years later, my husband, Jerry, our 20-year-old grandson, Andre, and I picked up a new, preordered BMW at their beautiful facility in Munich, Germany. One day as Andre was driving, he said, “Did you see that flash? I think I just got a ticket!”

We enjoyed the remainder of our trip and returned home. Several months later, a letter postmarked Sept. 28, 2012, arrived, addressed to Jerry at our full US street address but without “California” and with “Germany” as the bottom line. There were several scribbles on the envelope, the bottom one redirecting the letter to “USA.”

As best we could translate the information, it said that on Aug. 21, 2012, a “personenwagen, BMW” with our license number was going 113 kph in a 100-kph zone in the vicinity of Lausen, northwestern Switzerland. The fee was €99.93 or CHF120. 

I thought we should pay the ticket and forget about it, but Jerry said he was not going to pay a speeding ticket that had happened in Switzerland several months earlier.

The next letter was postmarked April 18, 2013, and was from an “Investigating Officer” from the State Prosecutor’s Office in Basel. This letter was in English and gave us a choice of paying either by check or credit card. Again, I thought we should pay it, but Jerry refused. 

The third letter arrived in late 2013. It stated that if the fine was not paid within 30 days, the matter would be turned over to a solicitor.

To date, we haven’t heard anything from the solicitor. However, I expect at any moment to answer the doorbell and be confronted by a Swiss Guard who has come from Switzerland to take my husband away.

PATSY KRUSE

Rancho Mirage, CA