That happened to an unknown number of motorists who were pulled over by Miami Beach Police Department (MBPD) officers on suspected traffic infractions in recent weeks.
According to MBPD spokesman Ernesto Rodriguez, when a driver receives a traffic ticket in Miami Beach, they also receive a leaflet detailing how to pay the fine. However, a recent batch of those fliers included a seemingly insignificant typo in the web address that ostensibly directed users to the Miami-Dade Clerk of Courts site. The correct link is miami-dadeclerk.com, but the URL on the leaflets read "miamidadeclerk.com," without the hyphen.
Though English-language dictionaries have dropped the hyphens in thousands of words over the years, any internet-literate human is acutely aware that every character in a URL is crucial.
It happens that miamidadeclerk.com redirects to a slipshod-looking online store called Find Sale, which is filled with more Trump merchandise than Enrique Tarrio's closet. The site offers an embroidered "Trump 2024" camouflage baseball cap, a "Take America Back 2024" flag, and miscellaneous items that spell out the Trump base's latest battle cry, "Let's go Brandon." The website appears to have been registered in December 2007 by a group called Synergy Technologies, LLC. The physical address for the LLC is listed in Saint Kitts and Nevis.
Rodriguez tells New Times that no one who received the leaflet with the incorrect website notified MBPD. The department was made aware of the typo after the Miami Herald's Douglas Hanks reported the news Tuesday afternoon.
"We advised our officers to discontinue their use and are in the process of having the corrected inserts printed," Rodriguez says. "We have since launched an internal affairs review of the matter to determine how the error occurred."
"I also feel like miami-dadeclerk.com is such a shitty unofficial sounding name for the police or any state/government anything," a commenter observed after Miami filmmaker Billy Corben shared an image of the botched flier on Instagram. "Tremendo Mickey Mouse."
