NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) — His name is Michael A. Rodriguez, just not the same Michael A. Rodriguez listed on three traffic tickets from Pennington, N.J. But that didn’t stop the mistaken info from getting to his car insurance company.
His car insurance rates have gone up about $300 per year.
“I asked them why my rates increased, and they got back with me and said, ‘We see speeding tickets,'” Rodriguez said in a Friday morning interview. He has a court date on those tickets in two weeks at the other end of a six-hour drive.
“The last time I spoke to the officer, he said if I don’t show up, things are going to get worse for me,” Rodriguez said.
The three tickets charge speeding 39 mph in a 25 mph zone, no valid license, and no license present, so there was no license picture to compare with Michael Rodriguez of Newport News. The tickets list the vehicle as a 2018 Gray Honda (Rodriguez drives a blue Nissan) and a home address in Central Philadelphia, about an hour from Pennington. He said he has never set foot in New Jersey.
Another police record could have sorted out the mix-up immediately — the officer’s bodycam video.
“Ultimately, after several calls, it was finally revealed that the bodycam footage from that night has been deleted,” Rodriguez said.
He summed up his frustration: “It’s just an insane situation in this day and age.”
10 On Your Side has reached out to the Pennington, N.J. officer who wrote the tickets to try to get all of this sorted out.