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'Speeding Ticket Frenzy' in Michigan

Netlore Archive: Email hoax claims a 'speeding ticket frenzy' is taking place in Michigan, with state troopers handing out tickets every 10 minutes to collect more fines and increase the state's revenues.

Description: Email hoax
Circulating since: Jan. 2006 (this version)
Status: False


2008 Variant:
Email example contributed by Leonard F., Jan. 12, 2008:

FW: Speeding Tickets in Mich.-Crackdown in February

Share this news flash with family and friends;

Heads Up, In February, Michigan will launch a 30-day speeding ticket frenzy.

The state estimates that 9 million dollars will be generated in speeding tickets. 1 million will go to pay state troopers overtime.

There will be 50 state troopers on duty 24/7 patrolling the following highways AND MORE!

I-75 North and South
I-94 From Ann Arbor to Port Huron
Entire length of I-96 & I-696
I-275 North and South
M-10 Lodge Fwy

Now, 5 mph above the limit can justify a ticket, and every state trooper is supposed to pull a car over and write a ticket every 10 minutes. They have issued 30 brand new unmarked Crown Victoria cruisers and they are bringing all their part timers on full time.

* Wear your seat belt,
* have nothing hanging from the rear view mirror,
* do the speed limit - use cruise control if you have it,
* no cracks in your windshield,
* and use your turn signals!


2006 Variant:
Email example contributed by D. McGinnis, Jan. 26, 2006:

Subject: FW: SuperBowl Tip

FYI

Heads Up for what it's worth ~just saw this; Michigan will launch a 30-day speeding ticket frenzy. The state estimates that 9 million dollars will be generated in speeding tickets. 1 million will go to pay state troopers overtime. There will be 50 state troopers on duty at all times patrolling the 6 main intersections and highways.


I-75 north and south
I-94 (from Ann Arbor to Port Huron)
entire length of I-696
I-275 north and south
M-10 Lodge Fwy
I-96 from Detroit West to M-14

Now, 5 mph above the limit can justify a ticket and every state trooper is supposed to pull a car over and write a ticket every 10 minutes. They have issued 30 brand new unmarked Crown Victoria cruisers and they are bringing all their part timers on full time. If you work anywhere in the Detroit Metropolitan area, you must take one of there interstates, routes, or parkways. It's up to you how fast you are doing when they do.

Wear your seat belt, nothing hanging from the rear view mirror, do the speed limit (not a mile over) use cruise control if you have it, no cracks in your windshield, use your turn signals.


Analysis: I'm running out of things to say about this multifarious hoax, which first surfaced in May 2005 and keeps cropping up in different states like a bad penny. The above variants, the earliest circulating since January 2006 and the most recent received in January 2008, claim a "speeding ticket frenzy" is about to take place in Michigan, but check the wording -- it's all but identical to previous versions naming Texas, California, and New Jersey as the locale.


2008 Updates:

'Speeding Ticket Frenzy' Debunked
Grand Rapids Press, Jan. 18, 2008

Police: 'Speeding Ticket Frenzy' Email a Hoax
ClickonDetroit.com, Jan. 17, 2008


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Last updated: 01/18/08


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