I just paid the price for breaking the law.

Don’t worry… I’m not some hardened criminal. However, I did not follow the Chicago law that requires all vehicles residing in the city to sport a “city sticker” on their windshield. Every year, the city issues a new sticker (about $75 bucks) and by the end of June, all cars must have this sticker displayed and the old one disposed of. If you don’t, you will be ticketed.

Unfortunately for me, I was negligent in getting my new city sticker. You see, in my mind, the city sticker wasn’t that big of a deal. I figured our city’s finest police officers were too busy spending their time fighting real, big-deal crime on the streets of Chicago. I assumed I could just slip by unnoticed. Nope – not so much.

The other day, I came back outside after a meeting to find a big, old orange sticker envelope on the front of my car, a tell-tale sign of the ticket within. Fifty dollars poorer, I have learned my lesson. Not only did I have to pay that ticket, but I also had to go to city hall to apply for a sticker, pay the $75 to get it, and was slapped with another $50 late fee there! Yikes!

I don’t know whether other cities have this same law, but it just goes to show you that thinking you’re saving money by doing something risky (the same could be said for avoiding health insurance or even something like buying cheap junk food in place of healthier stuff) will often result in “Murphy’s Law” – if something bad can happen, it will!

Thanks to sisudave for the picture.