A St-Laurent man’s love of music is proving costly after he said he was given a $149 ticket for singing "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)" while driving.
On Sept. 27, Taoufik Moalla was on his way to get a bottle of water from Provigo. He was headed down St. Croix, cheerfully singing along to the 1990 C+C Music Factory hit, when he heard a police siren behind him.
“I was thinking they wanted to pass, but they called on the speaker ‘Please go to the right side,’” said Moalla. “I stopped and four police came, two on each side, and checked the inside of the car. Then they asked me if I screamed. I said no, I was just singing.”
Police checked his license and registration and came back with the ticket for screaming in his car, and a fine for disturbing the peace.
“I don’t know if my voice was very bad and that’s why I got the ticket,” he said. “But I was very shocked. I understand if they are doing their job, they are allowed to check if everything’s okay, if I kidnapped someone or if there’s danger inside but I would never expect they would give me a ticket for that.”
Moalla said he wasn’t singing too loud, “just if you are happy and you like this song.”
While he was thinking the situation is crazy, he said he kept his calm.
“I said okay, thank you, because I know I can contest the ticket. They were doing their job.”
He’s done just that and is currently waiting for a court date, which he said he was told could take as long as a year to take place. He said he simply plans to tell a judge how he got the ticket.
“Imagine if the Canadiens won a game. All the fans are going to scream out of their cars. They’re going to sing. Are you going to give them all tickets?”
As for his wife, she isn’t surprised that her husband’s vocal abilities ended up in a fine.
“She told me, if it was for singing, I’d have given you a ticket for $300,” he said.
