Had I committed the crime, I would have paid the fine.
When I received the fine in the mail I was wracking my brain as to when I might have driven to Tel Aviv. Normally when I go to Tel Aviv I take the bus, mainly because it is so difficult to find parking. I did drive a couple times early in the Corona days after the first lockdown, as I didn't want to take public transportation, but I was nowhere near the area that was mentioned in the ticket. I looked at the date on the ticket and then on a calendar and discovered the date was on Shabbos. Not only was it Shabbos but it was also Shavuos. I was definitely home. We didn't go to Tel Aviv for Shabbos Shavuos, let alone park the car on Saturday on a busy Tel Aviv road.
It had to be a mistake. My car is a common one in Israel (the description was correct but very common) and they somehow messed up on the license plate number.
I called the City of Tel Aviv hotline to appeal and spoke nicely with an operator. I told her about the ticket and explained it must be a mistake as I am shomer shabbat and was not in Tel Aviv that day and not driving anywhere. I asked if there was a picture on file and if yes they should confirm it and please cancel the ticket.
The operator gave me an email address and told me to write there the entire story and my claim and they will review it and decide.
I immediately wrote and sent the email. This was a day after receiving the ticket in the mail, at the beginning of August. I did not get any confirmation of receipt of my email, so had no idea what the process is, if they received it, and how I would find out regarding the decision. I was worried they would not get back to me until after the payment date would pass and then they would make me pay a nice late fee on top of the fine. So, in September I called.
After getting transferred around a bit between departments, some operator told me that the email was received and they are in the process of reviewing the incident and will let me know when a decision is arrived at. Ok.
Silence. Full radio silence. Time passed - September, October, November, December. I kept wondering what happened.
Today, January 7, I received a notice by email that the fine has been canceled.
It kind of irks me that in the letter they say they decided to go beyond the letter of the law and accept my request and cancel the fine.
I was right. It isn't "beyond the letter of the law". they aren't being nice to me. They made a mistake. I kind of wanted to call them and complain about the wording and defend myself as being right, but I stopped myself. They canceled the ticket, and that's what this was about. There is no need to beat a dead horse.
And all that was done just by following the normal process, without any screaming (which I am not particularly good at), and without any protexia (which I don't have). Sometimes the process works
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