Texas Man Protests Speeding Ticket by Paying With 21,200 Pennies

A Texas man protested his speeding ticket by paying a $212 fine with 21,200 pennies.

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Image via Complex Original
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Copping a speeding ticket is, by all accounts, not fun. Unless you're Kit Harington armed with a tasty Game of Thrones spoiler, the chances of a presumably overzealous police officer letting you off easy are profoundly slim. For one Texas man strapped with a $212 fine for driving nine miles over the speed limit, a newfound appreciation for the penny was the key to sending a message of protest.

"I didn't hurt anybody, I didn't endanger anybody's life," Brett Sanders toldKXAS-TV Friday. Sanders, who received the ticket while driving through his neighborhood in Frisco, first tried battling the ticket in court but lost. "When my fine came due, I just decided I may as well pay with pennies and we'll make a big spectacle of it." That spectacle has become a viral sensation, with Sanders' YouTube clip of the big payoff already netting more than a million views.

Sanders, in a separate chat with BuzzFeed Tuesday, argued that his speed was "safe" given the conditions. "I didn't feel like I owed anybody anything," Sanders said. "I decided I wanted to make a point that this is not right. This is not fair." Though the ticket itself was only $79.90, hefty court fees brought the total to $212.

Though paying with tens of thousands of pennies is surely a headache for court officials, the penny is still (even in the time of Apple Pay, et al) considered a legitimate unit of currency. According to the Frisco Municipal Court's website, "cash" is most certainly a viable payment option.

However, thanks to the sheer enormity of Sanders' penny haul, the city now owes him money. "I'm just going to go ahead and let them keep that," Sanders said of his overpaid balance of $7.81.

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