Home » Autos & Vehicles » A Single Egyptian Diplomatic Car has Accumulated 1,983 Unpaid New York City Parking Tickets, Amounting to $223,265.

A Single Egyptian Diplomatic Car has Accumulated 1,983 Unpaid New York City Parking Tickets, Amounting to $223,265.

The company responsible for the bright green marijuana-themed trucks that crowd Manhattan’s tourist districts is now paying the price for breaking the law on multiple occasions. They were fined not for illegally selling anything but for being major contributors to the city’s other infamous scourges: illegal parking. But did you know that in New York City alone is owed $500,000 in parking tickets?

A single Egyptian diplomatic car has racked up 1,983 unpaid parking tickets in New York City, totaling $223,265. Parking fines on diplomatic vehicles total $15.7 million.

The Million Dollar Fines

Thousands of these vehicles are slapped with bright orange envelopes containing summons ranging from $35 to $515 daily. However, many of their owners fail to pay: a public database of New York City parking and camera violations dating back over two decades lists over 3 million unpaid fines.

Some of the most egregious individual offenders, like Weed World Candies, whose trucks are mostly registered in Alabama, are registered out of state. New Yorkers own many of these vehicles, attempting to avoid fees, taxes, and high insurance premiums. The city has fewer tools at its disposal to pursue these vehicles.

According to the data, one of the worst offenders is a white refrigerated truck with Indiana plates that has racked up $139,920 in unpaid fines for parking in bike lanes, bus lanes, crosswalks, and other areas. Another white refrigerated truck with Minnesota license plates has racked up $126,355 in unpaid fines for violations such as parking in bike lanes and double parking in Midtown Manhattan. (Source: The Guardian

Who is to Blame for the Unpaid Tickets?

It’s perhaps not surprising that New York’s neighbor, New Jersey, has the most unpaid New York City traffic fines of any other state: $172.2 million, according to public data. Pennsylvania is second, with $89.4 million. However, cars from states much further away, Texas and Florida, rank second, with approximately $35.8 million in unpaid tickets each.

The worst offenders are not from any American state but rather are foreign diplomatic vehicles. According to city records, the all-time worst offender is an Egyptian diplomatic car that has racked up $223,265 in unpaid tickets totaling 1,983. Fines for vehicles with license plates bearing Egyptian diplomatic country codes total $2,014,944.

Indonesian diplomats are also significant offenders, amassing $770,663.85 in unpaid tickets, with the top offender alone contributing $56,325 in unpaid tickets.

Locals also protested during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine after journalists discovered that Russian diplomats had ignored more than $100,000 in traffic fines. That figure has since been reduced to $97,414.03, according to data. 

According to Jacqueline Gold, a finance department spokesperson, diplomatic vehicles owe $15.7 million in parking fines. 

Works with the United States State Department to collect unpaid parking tickets from diplomatic vehicles, which are generally exempt from booting or towing.

Jacqueline Gold, Finance Department

According to the State Department, cars with multiple unpaid violations are not eligible for registration or renewal of diplomatic license plates. (Source: The Guardian

Image from Spokesman

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