DC woman fights thousands in traffic tickets mistakenly issued to her

WASHINGTON - A D.C. woman has accumulated thousands of dollars in speeding tickets – and she has no plans to pay them. 

But there’s a reason for that: the car in question isn’t hers.

For the past six months, Angela Devore has been receiving traffic citations for violations captured by cameras across D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. 

Frustrated and fed up, she reached out to FOX 5 for help.

"The thing is, I want this to be over," Devore said. "Sometimes I’m afraid to drive my own car because I don’t want it to be towed, and I don’t want to receive any more tickets because of the ones already on my car. I can’t move about freely."

Since June, Devore has received over 20 speeding camera tickets from D.C. alone, with additional citations from Maryland and Virginia. Altogether, the fines total thousands of dollars. But when Devore opens the citations, the photo shows a two-door convertible BMW – not the four-door Volkswagen Jetta she drives.

The issue appears to lie in the license plates. 

While both cars have D.C. tags, the plate number on the BMW includes a dash in the middle of the first zero, a small difference that has led to months of mistaken citations.

Devore has been in contact with the DMV, trying to get the issue corrected. A recent hearing on her case was left pending review. 

She said her calls to DMVs in Maryland and Virginia resulted in the immediate dismissal of her citations, a resolution she had hoped to see in D.C. as well.

"A couple times I’ve called, and they told me just to keep contesting the tickets," she said. "But how long do you want me to do that? I’ve been contesting tickets for almost six months."

Devore is pushing for the tickets to be dismissed and to be reimbursed for new tags to avoid future issues. In response, the D.C. DMV told FOX 5 it is working to pull records to resolve the situation.

FOX 5 will continue to follow this story and provide updates.