Parking Ticket Leads to Home Foreclosure

Reader Comments
Back to blog

You clowns who proclaim that he did not follow the rules, living in a society were laws rule,etc.,etc. would have had an excellent career in the National Socialist party. You people are disgusting displays of humanity and to even condone this type of over-punitive response by an out of control govt. shows your lack of compassion and bizarre rationalization of a repressive and oppressive society and will someday feel the wrath of the govt you so proudly support. In fact it's all been done before "restore law and order" "just following orders" "the security of the fatherland" you idiots ought to read your history books instead of your parking and violation codes

mike of NH 11:46AM September 30, 2008

Yet another example of the greedy government wanting more money.

BK of IL 2:06PM September 08, 2008

This seems to be a perfect example of an unyielding/inflexible government blindly adhering to the strict letter of the law. Any agency that blindly carries out orders without acknowledging the circumstances of the situation is no better than a machine making decisions based upon ones and zeros. We are humans, not machines, and we have a responsibility to act humanely. Laws were never meant to be unbending. They were meant to establish and maintain a social norm. But when circumstances arise in which a law violates moral and ethical codes of conduct, then the law must either bend to accommodate said moral principle, or be re-written all together.
I believe the excuse “we are just doing our job” has been used by groups and individuals to justify their wrong doing on many occasions throughout history. I am sure this is what Hitler’s followers used to justify killing Jews, how Ford managers justified putting the pinto into production with a faulty fuel tank design, what the managers of several formula companies said when selling their product to third world countries as a “better than breast milk” alternative, how advertisers justified selling tobacco products they claimed to be harmless, how Rosa Parks could have been prosecuted for defying unmoral and unjust laws of the time, and how many others throughout history have justified doing what they knew was wrong. It is a tired saying, and it hasn’t justified anyone’s actions yet, including trying to foreclose on this mans house.

Ringo of OK 11:39AM September 05, 2008

This person has a documented case that seems to clearly spell out that he might not be able to follow the instructions to pay the ticket itself. This seems like a great law suit in the making.

Julius of MD 9:45AM September 05, 2008

I am Peter Tubic.
If you threw a man under the wheels of a semi and it ran over his legs people would understand why he can't walk, but can still do other things that to those people seem reasonable. They can't understand how I could miss those notices while being able to do other things that seem more complex. I am living it and I don't understand it.
Only those of you that have been care givers to loved ones and who have known the amount of pain involved in osteoarthritis of the knees can appreciate what I went and am still going through.
One of the things most people don't understand is that pain makes you lose focus and the fact that I can do some things well does not mean that I can do all things well.
Mayor Barrett has NOT DONE OR OFFERED A THING TO HELP so far, but thanks to the attorneys who are helping me Pro Bono and the prodding of the reporter that broke the story, I am getting some help just from being able to talk to someone that cares enough to call.
My parents are both gone now and I only have myself to worry about now, but as surely as Napoleon had his Waterloo, any politician who allows the taking of homes for minor violations will lose votes, prestige, power, and face.
What no one wants to tell you while they dig up things to condemn me for is that I spent almost $6,000.00 in 1996 to run against Peggy Krusick because of her vote to tax the people for that tax sucking albatross called MILLER PARK and I was a whistle blower in the City of Milwaukee Housing Authority and appeared in front of the Personal and Finance Committee when it was chaired by the late Alderman Steve Cullen.
Peter Tubic

Peter Tubic of WI 10:49PM August 20, 2008

Don’t Cry for Peter Tubic
And: Will Boris Eliminate the Sun?
by Bruce Murphy | Tuesday 8/12/2008
The old Milwaukee Sentinel was a sucker for sensationalistic stories, and in its weak moments, its successor has operated in the same vein. A case in point: the MilwaukeeJournal Sentinel’s Aug. 2 story on “poor” Peter Tubic.
As the story’s lead declared, Tubic “ignored a parking fine in 2004, and on Monday, it cost him his $245,000 home.”
Sounds dreadful, doesn’t it? Clearly a case of government bureaucrats out of control. And across the country, the media and bloggers picked up the story, from U.S. News to the Glasgow, Scotland daily to the Republican Liberty Caucus .
In reality, this was a story about a man with a transparent excuse for not paying his fine. And now he’s been turned into a martyr.
The story wrongly reported it was a parking fine. In fact, Tubic had an unregistered vehicle. The city has an ordinance against this because some people have old jalopies on their lots, which make neighborhoods look junky. In this case, someone complained to the city and, in March 2004, Tubic was given a zoning violation for having an unregistered vehicle.
He could have paid the $50 fine, but didn’t. From then on a city inspector would come to the house and check on whether the vehicle had been taken care of and issue another warning, with interest added and a higher fee charged. Each letter told the amount owed, the amount it would rise to after the next visit from the inspector, and a warning that the home could eventually be foreclosed. All intended to send the message to pay the fine. The city sent such warning letters at least 15 times.
Never once in more than four years did Tupic call the city to explain or complain or offer to pay less or offer to pay anything. Tupic says his father died around the time he was first fined in 2004, which made the fine hard to deal with. Yes, we all have excuses for not paying bills on time. And what of the four years since?
Reporter Raquel Rutledge tells us Tupic has been disabled since 2001, and documents from the Social Security Administration say this limits his “ability to understand, remember and carry out instructions.”
But presumably Tupic pays his other bills, or someone pays them for him. Why couldn’t this bill be paid before it escalated over a period of 52 months to $2,600?
Tubic seems pretty knowledgeable about government. He ran for the state assembly in both 1996 and 1998. He successfully dealt with the labyrinthine ways and paperwork demands of the Social Security Administration, convincing the agency he is disabled. He was able to hire a lawyer to handle his dispute with the city. And he had no trouble calling the Journal Sentinel and getting their help. The only people or office he seemed unable to call was the city of Milwaukee – for 52 months straight.
“I’m not sure what his complaint is,” says Milwaukee City Attorney Grant Langley, whose office oversees all unpaid violations. “I have no indication he is willing to pay anything.”
Tubic was one of about 500 city homeowners who owed fines of some kind and recently came before the courts. Some 300 people paid up and the other 200 had their homes foreclosed.
“Everyone has to be treated equally,” Langley notes. “The fine is on the tax bill and state constitution requires every taxpayer to be treated equally.”
Tubic has the money to pay the fine, he told Rutledge. He could pay it and then file a claim against the city asking to get his money back, Langley notes.
So what makes Tubic’s story different from the other 200 people who face foreclosure? The only difference is that Tubic called the Journal Sentinel, and the paper fell for his dog-ate-my-homework story.

of WI 12:13PM August 12, 2008

Don’t Cry for Peter Tubic
And: Will Boris Eliminate the Sun?
by Bruce Murphy | Tuesday 8/12/2008
The old Milwaukee Sentinel was a sucker for sensationalistic stories, and in its weak moments, its successor has operated in the same vein. A case in point: the MilwaukeeJournal Sentinel’s Aug. 2 story on “poor” Peter Tubic.
As the story’s lead declared, Tubic “ignored a parking fine in 2004, and on Monday, it cost him his $245,000 home.”
Sounds dreadful, doesn’t it? Clearly a case of government bureaucrats out of control. And across the country, the media and bloggers picked up the story, from U.S. News to the Glasgow, Scotland daily to the Republican Liberty Caucus .
In reality, this was a story about a man with a transparent excuse for not paying his fine. And now he’s been turned into a martyr.
The story wrongly reported it was a parking fine. In fact, Tubic had an unregistered vehicle. The city has an ordinance against this because some people have old jalopies on their lots, which make neighborhoods look junky. In this case, someone complained to the city and, in March 2004, Tubic was given a zoning violation for having an unregistered vehicle.
He could have paid the $50 fine, but didn’t. From then on a city inspector would come to the house and check on whether the vehicle had been taken care of and issue another warning, with interest added and a higher fee charged. Each letter told the amount owed, the amount it would rise to after the next visit from the inspector, and a warning that the home could eventually be foreclosed. All intended to send the message to pay the fine. The city sent such warning letters at least 15 times.
Never once in more than four years did Tupic call the city to explain or complain or offer to pay less or offer to pay anything. Tupic says his father died around the time he was first fined in 2004, which made the fine hard to deal with. Yes, we all have excuses for not paying bills on time. And what of the four years since?
Reporter Raquel Rutledge tells us Tupic has been disabled since 2001, and documents from the Social Security Administration say this limits his “ability to understand, remember and carry out instructions.”
But presumably Tupic pays his other bills, or someone pays them for him. Why couldn’t this bill be paid before it escalated over a period of 52 months to $2,600?
Tubic seems pretty knowledgeable about government. He ran for the state assembly in both 1996 and 1998. He successfully dealt with the labyrinthine ways and paperwork demands of the Social Security Administration, convincing the agency he is disabled. He was able to hire a lawyer to handle his dispute with the city. And he had no trouble calling the Journal Sentinel and getting their help. The only people or office he seemed unable to call was the city of Milwaukee – for 52 months straight.
“I’m not sure what his complaint is,” says Milwaukee City Attorney Grant Langley, whose office oversees all unpaid violations. “I have no indication he is willing to pay anything.”
Tubic was one of about 500 city homeowners who owed fines of some kind and recently came before the courts. Some 300 people paid up and the other 200 had their homes foreclosed.
“Everyone has to be treated equally,” Langley notes. “The fine is on the tax bill and state constitution requires every taxpayer to be treated equally.”
Tubic has the money to pay the fine, he told Rutledge. He could pay it and then file a claim against the city asking to get his money back, Langley notes.
So what makes Tubic’s story different from the other 200 people who face foreclosure? The only difference is that Tubic called the Journal Sentinel, and the paper fell for his dog-ate-my-homework story.

of WI 12:13PM August 12, 2008

Compare this to the home owners that took out mortgages they knew they could never afford. It's all the same stuff folks! These days people think they are entitled and rules do not apply.

Dianne of NY 12:08PM August 11, 2008