A $465 ticket for a cracked licence has become a ticket to viral fame for one Alberta man, who posted a rant about his encounter with police on Facebook.
Dave Balay of Camrose, Alta., says he plans to fight the ticket, which was issued after he was pulled over one night in Edmonton.
"I'm not paying it," Balay says in the video, which has been viewed more than 680,000 times since Jan. 26.
Balay says the officers pulled him over because one saw him swerving on the highway. However, after questioning him, he says they did not find evidence that he was impaired.
Nevertheless, Balay says one of the officers insisted on issuing him a ticket for carrying a "mutilated licence."
"I didn't even know there was such a thing," Balay said.
A statement issued by the Edmonton Police Service on Friday said the officer who stopped Balay “had grounds” to lay a careless driving charge, which carries a penalty of $543 and six demerit points. But since Balay was co-operative, “the officer used his discretion to issue a lesser fine for a cracked driver’s licence,” police said.
A thin, centimetre-long crack can be seen running approximately one-third of the way along the top edge of Balay's licence, as it appears in his Facebook video. The crack is across a barcode on the back.
Balay says it does not obscure any vital information on the card.
He also showed off the ticket itself, to prove that it was real.
"Way to go… Const. Strutynski from the Edmonton Police Service," Balay says, reading the name on the ticket. He adds that he is unemployed and unable to pay the fine, so he'll have to accept an alternative punishment if he can't get the ticket dismissed in court.
"I think a warning would've been fine," he said.
According to the police statement, “should the driver choose not to pay the fine, it will be up to the Crown and the courts to determine whether or not this charge was appropriate; therefore the EPS can’t offer further comment on this incident.”
