Help Overcome Legal Fines from Burning Man Incident

I am trying to raise money to pay for fines and legal help in regards to an unfortunate event that I experienced recently.

Unfortunately, this story was shared on Channel 8 KOLO News in Reno and will also be appearing in the Reno Gazette Journal. This is regarding giving rides to Burning Man. The NTA, which is the Nevada Transportation Authority, which many of us didn’t know existed, is running a sting currently and has been for the last couple of months regarding people giving rides to Burning Man and charging money.

Unbeknownst to me, this is against the law. Even though I thought I had done due diligence before setting this up by googling rides to Burning Man and talking to several friends who were burners and checking in on burner social media sites to make sure I could drop off, nothing came up saying that this was an illegal process.

So it turned out that the person that was contacting me via email from the ad I put on Craigslist in the beginning of August was actually an NTA agent. So when I pulled up at the DSR following their directions on August 26 at 6:30 in the morning to pick up what I thought were six burners headed to the Playa, I was surrounded by three unmarked Ford Explorer SUVs and three very aggressive NTA agents who surrounded me, made me get out of my car, searched my car, and then impounded my car. They went on to tell me that I was looking at $30,000 in fines for setting up illegal transportation in Nevada without a license or the correct insurance.

To get my car released from impound, I had to attend a hearing in their office, and they told me I would have to pay anywhere from $500-$1000 in cash to get my car released. And then I would have to plead with the Vegas Authority regarding my fines. After leaving the hearing and heading over to City Auto Tow in Sparks to pick up my car, I was talking to the woman in the office, and she mentioned that just yesterday morning alone, the NTA had 18 cars towed to just their location. It turns out this is hunting season for the NTA, and they are very busy. So when Channel 8 showed up to observe the hearing yesterday, needless to say, the agents were not happy for the exposure.

In retrospect, this is my fault for not educating myself enough in regards to the process of giving rides to the Burning Man festival. However, the way this was handled was extremely scary and traumatic, and the fines and fees have pretty much wiped me out. I have found a great lawyer who is literally at the Burning Man event right now, but after he gets back into town, I’m hoping that he can help me challenge this case to some regard. The way that it is set up, you have to agree to everything just to get your car back. So I have been encouraged to create a GoFundMe just to help navigate the process of getting this situation cleaned up and my life back in order financially. Please feel free to share this if only to educate people that it’s illegal to give rides to the burn so that the NTA doesn’t have the opportunity to completely hijack their livelihood.

Thank you for sharing. Blessed love and respect. ❤️