Help Sonya Get Her Car Back
Donation protected
I have my sweet little car back! Thank you all for everything. :-D
***
I know you're asking yourself, "10,000?!? Are you kidding?" Well, let me break down what I currently owe to get my registration current, my car out of impound, and my license reinstated. This is what it will take to secure my car again and become 100% street-legal.
Naturally, the timeline is "yesterday." :-(
Registration: $3,881
Impound: $2,335 (Though posibly lower. See below.)
License: $1,770 in SF, $2,090.04 in Santa Clara
My embarrassment at having to create a GoFundMe for something like this overwhelming.
Meantime, here's the story:
Shortly after I bought my current car, I got some tickets for minor infractions. Very shortly after that I lost my job. For the next couple of years, my employment was very spotty, consisting only of contract gigs with long stretches of unemployment in between.
I could barely pay the basics (rent, car payment, insurance, cell service, food…and sometimes not even those). In the meantime fees accumulated and got handed over to collections, and then even to the CA Franchise Tax Board. It's going to take thousands to both renew my car's registration and get my suspended license back. And yesterday, I was pulled over and my car was impounded, which adds an ever-growing expense to what's needed to reinstate my car's registration and my driver's license. The officer who impounded the car imposed a 30-day minimum for the impound ($2,335 including tow fee), though I can plead with the court to shorten that.
If not for one of my roommates being able to take me to and from work right now, my situation would be hopeless. It would cost me my job and my home.
As a further complication, my employer's started docking my pay for my increasingly frequent and intense migraines since they caused me to go far over my available sick and vacation time for the year. I'm trying to get classified as short-term disability instead of leave without pay to retroactively get the withheld back, but that's in limbo right now.
(For the record, I've started seeing a neurologist whose regimen of new medications seems to be starting to have the desired effect.)
Furthermore, I have to go to Superior Court on 1/15 to show I've paid off license penalties and have had a new one issued. If not, I will have a criminal misdemeanor on my record.
This is the worst-case scenario I've been trying to avoid after I'd started paying down the fees before the docking of my pay.
I know this sounds like a case of, "Well, you made your bed, so you have to lie in it," but my circumstances have conspired to ensure that I wouldn't be able to fix the situation despite my best intentions even after finally securing the full-time/permanent job which I've only had for 8 months.
Please help.
To call this a lesson learned would be an understatement. I will never again, so help me, allow a financial problem to snowball so epically. The strain I've placed on my support network of friends and loved ones has been a sobering wake-up call.
Finally, I want to state emphatically that I would never under any circumstances use BABSCon money toward this purpose. The con has been doing a solid 66% better than at this time last year, and is very healthy. It's my baby, and I would never do anything to harm it. This situation is mine and mine alone to clean up…with help from you, of course.
Thank you for taking the time to read all this and for any signal-boosting and/or well-wishes you have to offer, even if you can't donate.
***
I know you're asking yourself, "10,000?!? Are you kidding?" Well, let me break down what I currently owe to get my registration current, my car out of impound, and my license reinstated. This is what it will take to secure my car again and become 100% street-legal.
Naturally, the timeline is "yesterday." :-(
Registration: $3,881
Impound: $2,335 (Though posibly lower. See below.)
License: $1,770 in SF, $2,090.04 in Santa Clara
My embarrassment at having to create a GoFundMe for something like this overwhelming.
Meantime, here's the story:
Shortly after I bought my current car, I got some tickets for minor infractions. Very shortly after that I lost my job. For the next couple of years, my employment was very spotty, consisting only of contract gigs with long stretches of unemployment in between.
I could barely pay the basics (rent, car payment, insurance, cell service, food…and sometimes not even those). In the meantime fees accumulated and got handed over to collections, and then even to the CA Franchise Tax Board. It's going to take thousands to both renew my car's registration and get my suspended license back. And yesterday, I was pulled over and my car was impounded, which adds an ever-growing expense to what's needed to reinstate my car's registration and my driver's license. The officer who impounded the car imposed a 30-day minimum for the impound ($2,335 including tow fee), though I can plead with the court to shorten that.
If not for one of my roommates being able to take me to and from work right now, my situation would be hopeless. It would cost me my job and my home.
As a further complication, my employer's started docking my pay for my increasingly frequent and intense migraines since they caused me to go far over my available sick and vacation time for the year. I'm trying to get classified as short-term disability instead of leave without pay to retroactively get the withheld back, but that's in limbo right now.
(For the record, I've started seeing a neurologist whose regimen of new medications seems to be starting to have the desired effect.)
Furthermore, I have to go to Superior Court on 1/15 to show I've paid off license penalties and have had a new one issued. If not, I will have a criminal misdemeanor on my record.
This is the worst-case scenario I've been trying to avoid after I'd started paying down the fees before the docking of my pay.
I know this sounds like a case of, "Well, you made your bed, so you have to lie in it," but my circumstances have conspired to ensure that I wouldn't be able to fix the situation despite my best intentions even after finally securing the full-time/permanent job which I've only had for 8 months.
Please help.
To call this a lesson learned would be an understatement. I will never again, so help me, allow a financial problem to snowball so epically. The strain I've placed on my support network of friends and loved ones has been a sobering wake-up call.
Finally, I want to state emphatically that I would never under any circumstances use BABSCon money toward this purpose. The con has been doing a solid 66% better than at this time last year, and is very healthy. It's my baby, and I would never do anything to harm it. This situation is mine and mine alone to clean up…with help from you, of course.
Thank you for taking the time to read all this and for any signal-boosting and/or well-wishes you have to offer, even if you can't donate.
Organizer
Sonya Lynn Hipper
Organizer
Palo Alto, CA
