<p>What do you think about this…is it some sort of a rackett? My d was driving back to her apt. from a meeting about 11PM. Going 40 according to the police instead of 25 or something like that. She says that by the time she saw the lights behind her she looked down & saw she was going slower. ANYHOW, it wasn’t two days later that she started to receive letters from lawyers in NC (we live in CT) telling her that for a fee (anywhere from $145 - 299) they would take her case!!! That 2nd day from the ticket she got six letters & they kept coming.
I told my H that they saw her license plate & Elon window sticker & said, good we got another one…from there they phoned up all the lawyers that prey on college kids down there and got a cut of their fees! Is it my active imagination or what?
PS, I told my d to go to court and fight it, but she heard from another student that she had to miss the whole day of classes and it took forever. So my DH coughed up the fees for one of the lawyers and he took care of it…no missed classes, no points on her license, no extra insurance payment for us.
WHAT A RACKETT!!</p>
<p>Melsmom,</p>
<p>I have to agree with you that it is some kind of screwy system here! We are originally from NJ but have been in NC for 14 years now. My husband and I have each managed to get a speeding ticket during that time and were also bombarded with the lawyers letters. Friends told us immediately to get one of the lawyers and have it "taken care of". It is truly crazy! Those lawyers have it made. They get their fee, have the ticket dropped, and you pay your ticket and for the lawyer! It's the only way to avoid points on your license though (besides not speeding to begin with). </p>
<p>My one friend was adamant that she would fight it in court as to not give those lawyers one penny. Well, she ended up spending the entire day in court and the only way to get out of points on her license was to take a 6 hour drivers class! But of course she still had to pay the ticket after that. </p>
<p>Even worse, my hubby got a speeding ticket in SC in some tiny town and the cop made him pay the ticket right then and there to get out of getting points. He could have pocketed it for all we know! Crazy for sure! Lesson learned - don't speed and you won't have to worry about this!</p>
<p>It's all a little too crazy. In my daughter's case, the timing was terrible too. It was only days after the college student was carjacked and killed in Raleigh. She was terrified when the flashing lights turned on, a man (in plain chothes) jumped out of the passenger side door and came running up to her window. She said she only opened it because she saw "official" looking stuff hanging off his belt. You'd think the police would have had more important things to do than to pull over a young woman going slow in a residential neighborhood, especially in light of what happened and was still playing all over the news. On top of it she was told that they could really give her a hard time because she didn't have a registration sticker on her plate. CT has them on the windshield, but D doesn't pay attention to that. I could see if they said something to reassure her, but they were more intent on busting her a**, again we're talking 40 MPH. Just be careful down there and warn your kids. Scary.</p>
<p>Where was the college student carjacked? I hope somewhere other than Elon - did all of it happen in Raleigh? What college did they attend? Thanks!</p>
<p>40 MPH in a neighboorhood, and you're complaining? </p>
<p>The officer "jumped out" and "ran" to the window? BS!</p>
<p>Ericsmom, her name was Eve Carson and she was about to graduate from UNC. They called it a random killing, and it happened while our kids were at SETC. It was all over CNN and I'm sure if you google it you may remember seeing something about it at the time. It was very horrific.
D got pulled over during the media blitz. Could be why the cops were patrolling residential areas? Yes, AmericanmadeFord, it does seem a little over-the-top of a reaction by the police. I have the actual ticked tho and it clearly states 40 MPH, which she disputes, as she was going slower when they "nabbed" her.
I guess I should be grateful that they are at least patrolling the areas around campus, it may have turned out different for poor Eve if the same was true for her area, which was also residential.</p>
<p>Just a PS - that murder happened in Chapel Hill - not Raleigh. Very scary.</p>
<p>Thanks MTMama, even closer to "home #2."</p>
<p>Thanks - I knew about the one in Chapel Hill. Didn't realize it was a carjacking. I think another murder happened at another campus, maybe Auburn, within the same day or weekend.</p>
<p>FYI to people reading - Chapel Hill is also a nice college town and is at least 30 minutes from Elon - location of large UNC.</p>
<p>Hi Ericsmom, it's true I've never heard it called a carjacking in the media, but around here if you are pulled over, killed, and your car taken, it's called a carjacking. It's usually random, but having a nice car/SUV can probably make the odds go up that one will be targeted. In Carson's case they got her ATM card too. I guess I took the liberty in calling it that, but whatever the case it makes you worry.
In my D's case the police did nothing to make her feel safer, in fact they scared the daylights out of her. I found it all a little strange, and thought it best that I post her experience here for other Elon parents/kids to read about. Thanks kaysmom for acknowedging that it is common practice that the lawyers swoop in for their slice of the pie.</p>
<p>An update on Eve Carson's last moments. It's not a carjacking after all. She was actually just studying in her apartment prior to being kidnapped. So horrible for her and her loved ones.</p>
<p>Warrants:</a> UNC student was kidnapped, robbed, shot - CNN.com</p>