Getting a ticket is high up on the list of things that could ruin your week. But, that experience in Miami Beach was either made way worse or a little better for those cited, depending on their political opinions.
Miami Beach police were reportedly handing out fliers to drivers who received a ticket to pay their fines online. But the kicker was that the link on the flier did not take them to the Miami-Dade County Clerk of the Court's website. It instead brought them to a webpage selling pro-Trump 2024 merchandise.
The site offered Trump 2024 flags, "Let's Go Brandon" signs, and a slew of other merchandise supporting another presidential run from the former president, the Miami Herald reported.
As for how ticketers could have received a flier sending them to support the return of 44 to the Oval Office?
Miami Beach police spokesman Ernesto Rodriguez told The Washington Post it was all due to a typo on the flier.
Rodriguez did not share how many fliers had been handed out but said that after the department found the mistake, the nearly 400 officers stopped giving them to drivers while they worked to reprint them.
In the meantime, they are now giving out fliers with no information about the website, which launched its new services in April 2020, the Herald reported.
For those wondering how the typo could have possibly been put in there, Rodriguez shared that the department is investigating whether it was done purposefully.
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The difference between the actual URL and the incorrect one comes down to a hyphen, with the real website for the Miami-Dade court clerk being www.miami-dadeclerk.com and the other being www.miamidadeclerk.com.
The only information on who owns the pro-Trump link comes from domain records that show it is hosted by Epik, which also hosts the far-right websites Gab and Parler, NPR reported.
When the Miami-Dade Court Clerk first launched its new website services, court officials sent out fliers for police to use county-wide, containing the correct web address. However, the police department made their own version, and that is when the typo was added, the Post reported.
County officials shared their opinions on the situation, with Judge Steve Leifman telling the Herald it was "disgusting" for the website to direct people to a political merchandise shop when it was supposed to send them to the judiciary's page.
The typo is not believed to have been kept a secret either, as Miami Beach police union president, Paul Ozaeta, said that he was confident that if any officers knew of the error, they would have told their supervisors, the Herald reported.
"Most officers don't sit there and say, 'Let me make sure all of the links are right,'" Ozaeta said. "If they say hand them out, you hand them out."
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