In a recent post, it was noted that Illinois suburbs are seeing a rise in child support delinquencies. Failing to pay child support can have negative repercussions for all involved. While it’s not common that people are arrested on outstanding child support warrants dozens of years after the fact, it does happen on occasion.
A man living in the south recently returned to another state in which he used to live. It was his first trip back in over three decades. When he was pulled over for a traffic stop, he got a little surprise: He was arrested on a child support warrant dating back 36 years.
According to Reuters, the man was pulled over for having a loud car exhaust and for driving without tail lights. The trooper did a routine query on the man’s driver’s license and noticed something unusual. It took the trooper over an hour to determine that the man was wanted on an outstanding warrant from 1975 due to a clerical error on the date of the warrant.
The 70-year-old man spent the weekend in the county jail. He posted $2,000 bond, was released and is expected to be back in court on the child support warrant in the near future.
Some people don’t take child support payments seriously, but states have the authority to locate a parent to make sure payments are enforced, even years later. In this case, when a judge signed the original warrant, Gerald Ford was president. And according to the state trooper, the warrant was filled out on a typewriter, which was the likely reason for the clerical error.
Source: Reuters, “Man arrested in Wisconsin on 36-year-old child support warrant,” John Rondy, Dec. 12, 2011
