I Got A Letter Asking Me To Appear In Newport, RI's Municipal Court

What? ...why did I get this "Court Appearance Date" letter from Newport, RI? I had to call right away to find out. It turns out, someone has/had a "moped" for which they could not prove insurance coverage. Apparently, this happened in early October.

Well, I don't have a moped and I wasn't anywhere near Newport. So, it's not me. On the other hand, I don't know what might happen if I don't go there, or at least try to find out what's going on. I did just that.

• I called the Court Administrator who provided some information (after looking up the "ticket number").
• The CA connected me with the Records Department.
• The RD connected me with the Traffic Department, but there was no answer
• So, I left a message.

After a couple days I called back and spoke with Dee at the Records Department. She said she'd try to get the officer who issued the ticket to call me to explain what's happening.

If all else fails, I'll probably go to the court and explain/inquire. So as not to make it a total loss, I thought I may visit the Tennis Hall Of Fame...but I just looked them up and they're closed starting tomorrow (Nov 1st) for renovations.

Here's the weird part. While talking one of the folks, I learned that the plate number was 1041. What's weird is that this is the same plate number that I used to have when Lee (my wife) bought me a Piaggio Fly scooter. As it was classified as an LU (light utility) vehicle, I needed a title, plate, insurance, and a motorcycle license. WT? I remember that this "gift" had a cost of its own. Then, to make matters worse, it ran like crap (despite having extremely low mileage. (I got it with 7 miles on the odometer - it's a long story.)

I had to rent a U-Haul to drive the scooter back to Spencer to get a faulty fuel pump repaired. (It was leaking gasoline two inches away from the seat. One spark and I go up in flames. Ugh.

After that repair, the scooter ran sporadically. Finally, after a couple years, I gave up. I returned the plate to the RMV and set about trying to sell it. I finally did in 2018 and I had to rent another U-Haul to get the bike down to Connecticut to sell it to a scooter dealership. Cash in hand, I bought myself a Fender Telecaster.

So, how the Newport moped is mixed up with me may, in fact, be related to what I owned 10 years ago. That' scooter-from-hell is haunting me still if that's the case.