Database: UNC football player got 93 parking tickets

License plate numbers correspond to at least five cars, records show

It appears that one UNC football player accrued 93 parking tickets under nine license plate numbers between October 2007 and August 2009, according to parking records UNC released Thursday and a database search of the University’s Department of Public Safety website.

The website’s database, which students and employees can use to pay parking fines, allows users to link multiple plate numbers or citation numbers to accounts that still have unpaid fines.

Three of the player’s tickets have not been paid, according to the database search. He was given the 93 tickets between Oct. 22, 2007 and Aug. 24, 2009, according to the records, which do not link the players’ names to plate numbers.

The plates in question corresponded to cars including a gray Dodge, a gray Nissan, a black Acura, a black Honda and a green BMW, according to the records.

The database search shows that the players included in the records owe at least $1,715 in unpaid parking fines.

Thirty of the 395 tickets included in the records have not been paid, according to a statement of background information provided by the University Thursday.

The records were released Thursday morning after the N.C. Court of Appeals denied a petition by the University to delay the release of records sued for by The Daily Tar Heel, the (Raleigh) News & Observer and other media outlets.

The database also shows that the records released are for at least five football players. Not all 11 players whose parking tickets were requested actually ever received tickets, though there was a twelfth player included in the records who received 68 tickets, according to the University’s release.

All of the cars included in the records belonged to the student, a parent, a grandparent or a fellow student, according to the release.

“Student-athletes at Carolina do not receive special treatment when it comes to parking,” the statement said. “They get tickets just like any other student, faculty, staff member or visitor to campus would. The student-athletes are expected to pay their parking fines, just like any other student, faculty, staff member or visitor.”

In the 2010 fiscal year, 47,092 parking tickets were issued, according to a University release.

Officials from DPS declined to answer questions about the online database, referring all questions to UNC News Services.

Contact the University Editor at university@dailytarheel.com