OK, I got into an accident in Eastpointe on Dec. 22. Someone went thru a red light and I swerved to get out of the way and hit a street sign.

Although the vehicle damage was more than I thought it would be [[was a pretty strong street sign)... I was able to drive to the Eastpointes police station on 9 Mile & Gratiot... and filed a police report [[the other vehicle didn't stop).

Anyway I wasn't in there more than 15 minutes... they wrote down what I had to say, and then came into the police parking lot to spend 30 seconds to look at my car.

Several weeks later AAA [[my insurer) sent me a letter saying that Eastpointe Police requested that they [[the insurer) pay $327.00 for police time. AAA told them to bug off... that it was part of their job.

So all of a sudden 2 1/2 months later I get a bill from an out of state collections agency for the $327!!

On the bill it states that the police department came to the scene of the accident for an hour to handle the report, and also other clerical fees.

Well no one came out... I went to them... and spent only about 15 minutes with 1 officer.

I was fuming on Friday, and went down to the Eastpointe station and talked to the officer involved. He said that yeah he remembered me coming to the station... and that I should write a letter to the Police Chief explaining the situation.

Great I thought... that will go nowhere... but on Monday I will hand deliver a letter including a copy [[that I paid $10 for) of the police report... and mention that their department didn't send anyone out to handle the trouble... but that I went there. I already know that this will lead me nowhere... since the collection agency will likely send out another letter demanding payment.

The funny thing is that the street mentioned on the accident report doesn't even exist in Eastpointe... so that proves no one was at the site.

So now what do I do... do I contact the State Attorney General's offiice and say that Eastpointe is committing fraud? Or?

The irony is that I went to the police station to file a report so that my $250 AAA deductible would be waived [[which it was)... only to get a bill from Eastpointe for $327!

Also, I was told by the officer that only people NOT living in Eastpointe will be charged for accident police reports there.

Beware people...