Today I received a letter from Kantonspolizei Zurich. It was a speeding ticket for 120CHF. No big deal I thought.. Never got a speeding ticket before but I thought it was about time since I've been here for a few months already.

Then I read a little further where is stated the date and time of this Übertretungsanzeige. This particular Saturday we were in France and parked at a hotel garage at the time mentioned. And driving a different car! The car mentioned in the fine was supposedly parked about 200km away in our garage, with all keys in France with us.

So there are three possibilities in my understanding:
-Someone used our car and returned it (don't think so)
-Someone has copies of our license plates (possible)
-The police sent the fine to wrong people, even though the license plate number and address is correct on the fine (most likely in my opinion)

So, not speaking the local languages, is there any chance of getting this solved in English? Has anyone of you seen this happen before?

Reply ASAP with the details of where you were, and what you were doing (and with which vehicle!), then wait for their response.

Might be worth doing this by phone first, using as much German as you have to introduce yourself and ask if it's possible to discuss this in English ...

Contact the police immediately and request someone speaking English.
If it is in fact a cloned car, it's most likely going to be used for a serious crime.

The German word for "cloned car" is "Doublette".

It may just be a processing error, though.
The photo will prove it.
Hopefully.

Actually, my mom had the exact same thing happening to her in Holland, being sure she and her car were somewhere else than the place stated on the fine, only the colour of her car was mentioned wrongly, but the car model and license plate fit. We are still wondering how this was possible. Could be indeed false license plates or a mistake of data processing by either a person or the police computer system. You should indeed write a letter explaining where you were, attaching the hotel bill maybe? She did and got the fine cancelled. Personally I would def do this in English.

Thanks!

I will try to contact them tomorrow! Hope I get this sorted out soon :-)

I am guessing the license plate number in question is 'recycled' (given to someone else before us) because it's under 500K and given to us just this summer.

It has been know for the police to issue tickets to cars from the worng Kanton e.g. the actual car speeding had the number plate ZH 123 456 and yours is ZG 123 456. Sometimes the explanation is quite simple.

It's possible they read the number plate wrong on the photo and your number plate was similar. Tell them it's not you and they should produce the photo.

I think this ticket doesn't state the colour or model of car. I guess it's not important here.. It just states the license plate number and Fahrzeugart: PW.

Update: The issue was solved by a German speaking friend calling the authorities. They had made a mistake and the issue was solved over the phone.

Just as well you're not Swiss, otherwise you may have ended up paying up without question.

Huh? I don't understand. What do you mean?

He's implying that Swiss would pay rather than confront the authorities and question the ticket, I think.

That's ridiculous. If anything they read everything and check it twice. Plus they know how to make these types of complaints were we have to come here and ask.

I received a ticket for a car I never owned or drove, in a place I had never been to, at a time I was verifiably somewhere else. A simple letter in Google German explaining my position elicited an an apology from the authorities. Matter resolved.