Woman Spends Night In Jail For Decade-Old Ticket

A New Jersey woman spent the night in jail after a ticket she received way back in 2002 came back to haunt her.

When she was 17, Krystle Garcia was cited by New York police for not having her insurance card. She never paid the fine, but was able to renew her license and commute to New York for the subsequent decade. Everything seemed fine until she was stopped at a checkpoint and had her license randomly scanned. The scan showed that Garcia had an outstanding summons, so she was arrested on the spot.

Even though Garcia had long forgotten about the ticket, the state of New York did not.

"It was horrifying," Garcia told NBC 4 in New York. "I sat in a holding cell for 14 hours with people who had gun charges, who were fighting each other."

"I've received tickets in New York and I've paid them. Couldn't they have just impounded my car instead of taking me, and putting me with other people who commit actual crimes?"

Garcia ended up settling in court and paying a $155 fine, but not until after she suffered through a long and frightening ordeal.

Moral of the story: Pay your fines, folks. The government has a long memory.