For those of you that think you couldn't possibly have a warrant for your arrest - think again. We're seeing more and more cases in the last 3 months from people who have warrants for their arrest that are 5 or 10 or even 20 years old. Usually the people have been stopped coming back into the country, getting off a cruise ship, or it comes up in a background check for a new job. And the people never knew the warrants were out there - nor did the police it seems.
This week in Trinity, Florida a completely productive citizen was ARRESTED and put in JAIL for a 20+ year old traffic fine. Although this is rarely done anymore, when the guy failed to appear in court back in 1986 (that's not a typo), the judge issued a warrant for the amount of the fine along with a penalty for failing to appear which was 15 days in jail. Interestingly, the guy had been stopped for traffic tickets at least 4 times in the last 25 years. Why didn't anyone see the warrant then? Perhaps it's Sheriff White's new way of increasing revenue for his office.
Here's a link to the Pasco County Sheriff's office warrants division. Note that most of the warrants are over 10 years old and for chld support and petty crimes Now check out the MOST WANTED page. Interestingly the first guy on the most wanted list - Bertram - has been allegedly hiding out in Holiday for the past 3 months and was just arrested - in ORANGE COUNTY - not in Holiday where the majority of the Sheriff's budget allegedly goes. If they can find the traffic violators - why can't they find the bad guys?
