Man Pays Ticket More Than 50 Years Later

The rotter still owes $6.00! I think they should make an example of him.

Man Pays Ticket More Than 50 Years Later

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Better late than never. That's how John Gedge felt about paying a $15 speeding ticket he received from a guard in a city park nearly 52 years ago.

Fairmount Park officials received a letter and a five-pound note this week from Gedge, now 84 and living in a nursing home in East Sussex, England. Five pounds was worth about $14 in 1954, about $9 today.

"Englishmen pay their debts," Gedge told The Philadelphia Inquirer. "I'm very sorry I left it all that time. But my conscience is clear."

Gedge was visiting Philadelphia on July 15, 1954, when a park guard nabbed him for driving 55 mph in a 35 mph zone.

He recently discovered the unpaid citation in the pocket of an old coat.

"I thought, blimey, I've got to pay, that's it," Gedge said by telephone. "I had the fiver to do it. And I'm very happy I did."