A typo on a flier sent Florida drivers trying to pay parking tickets to a website advertising Trump merchandise
- A typo on a Miami-Dade County police flier sent people trying to pay parking citations to the wrong website.
- The erroneous link redirected users to a website selling Trump-related merchandise.
A typographical error on a police flier guiding drivers in Florida on how to deal with parking citations inadvertently directed them to a website for Trump merchandise.
According to the Miami Herald, the confusion stemmed from a missing hyphen between the words "Miami" and "Dade" in one of the links printed on fliers distributed by police in Miami-Dade County.
A copy of the flier obtained by the Herald showed both correct and incorrect links to the website for the county's Clerk of the Courts.
Until last week, the website link to "www.miamidadeclerk.com" redirected visitors to a page on the website "findsale.com," which advertised a variety of Trump merchandise, per the Associated Press. Among the items for sale were Trump 2024 caps, Trump-themed flags, and anti-Biden yard signs.
At press time, both URLs — hyphenated and unhyphenated — now redirect users to the correct website.
"Last week, we were made aware of a typographical error on an insert that is provided to drivers who receive traffic citations. We advised our officers to discontinue their use and are in the process of having the corrected inserts printed," Miami Beach police spokesman Ernesto Rodriguez told Insider.
"We have since launched an internal affairs review of the matter to determine how the error occurred," he added.
Separately, Rodrigue told the Miami Herald that police administrators have removed the erroneous fliers from a room at the county headquarters where officers can pick them up.
Paul Ozaeta, president of the city's police union, told the Miami Herald that he was sure that police officers would have brought the wrong web address up if they had noticed it.
"Most officers don't sit there and say, 'Let me make sure all of the links are right,'" Ozaeta said. "If they say hand them out, you hand them out."