No one likes a speeding ticket.
But 47-year-old Michael Harold Lynch of Bellevue, Wash., apparently took his anger to a new level when he emptied $206 in small change into a plastic bag, soaking it in urine and mailing it to the payments division of the Multnomah County courthouse. Mailroom staff handed over the box -- and the angry letter that accompanied it -- to a sheriff's sergeant.
"It was nasty. It reeked," said Sgt. Phil Anderchuk.
Anderchuk called a U.S. postal inspector to see whether federal law had been broken and learned that it's not against the law to mail a box of bodily fluids, as long as it's properly packed and doesn't emit an obnoxious odor. (Court staff could smell the contents only when they opened the package.)
So the sergeant sealed up the box and mailed it back to Lynch -- with $27.30 postage due if Lynch wanted his change back.
Portland police Officer Chris Cass ticketed Lynch last October for driving 19 mph over the posted 35 mph speed limit in a construction zone along Southeast McLoughlin Boulevard near the Ross Island Bridge. Lynch apparently ignored the ticket and missed a court date at which he could have shown up to fight the ticket. He also could have argued his case to the judge in a letter. He racked up an added $65 in fees.
Then, the box showed up.
In explaining why the courthouse couldn't accept Lynch's payment, the sergeant wrote that "the pile of coins emitted a strong, pungent odor of stale urine. This was very concerning to me."
Anderchuk reminded Lynch he still owed for the ticket.
"I encourage you to submit your payment in a more traditional form," he wrote in a January letter. He told Lynch to expect a visit from a postal inspector, presumably to talk about how close he came to violating federal law.
