05:59 PM Mountain Standard Time on Wednesday, May 31, 2006

By Gary Harper / 3 On Your Side

When Paul Stevens went to his mailbox recently he knew he was about to get bad news.

After all, one of the envelopes was labeled Scottsdale Police Department.

"I opened it up and sure enough it was a photo-radar ticket," Stevens said.

The ticket indicated Stevens had been caught on camera driving 78-miles-per-in a 65-mile-per-hour zone.

The ticket was to cost Stevens $157. But something was terribly wrong. The license plate number in the picture wasn't Stevens, the car was one that Stevens has never owned and the man behind the wheel well wasn’t Stevens.

"When I looked at the picture the male driving the car is Caucasian," Stevens said. "As you can see I'm a Black-American."

Wrong picture, wrong car, wrong license plate. Still Stevens is the guy who got the ticket.

"This is something the general public should know about," Stevens said. "So I said I'm going to write Gary Harper an e-mail and see if he gets involved."

As it turns out the City of Scottsdale says it received a letter from the registered owner indicating he shouldn't have to pay the fine because he sold the car to a person named Paul Stevens. So, the ticket was forwarded to good ol' Paul Stevens.

Not only did Stevens never buy or own a Z-28, he's angry the City of Scottsdale is holding him responsible for someone else's problem.

"It really puts the photo-radar system in doubt as to how it is enforced," Stevens said.

The city of Scottsdale says Stevens obviously won't be held responsible for the ticket.

But my question -- How can someone pass the buck and get out of a ticket by simply writing a letter and blaming someone else.

I ran the license plate and the man who claims he sold the car actually still owns the car, and lives in this home.

"I can't speculate on what's taken place in this instance," said Mike Phillips of the City of Scottsdale, "But we take all citizen complaints seriously and we will research our process. If we made mistakes in this case and we can do better, we will correct them."

"My name is associated with somebody who doesn't look like me in a car that is not registered to me," Stevens said. "They have a problem with their system."

Again, Scottsdale says it will not hold Stevens responsible for the ticket.

But still, the fact that it was transferred so easily by someone writing a letter should raise eyebrows.