A big I-Team investigation found the City of Milwaukee making money off crime victims. And get this... the law actually lets it happen. Over the last few months, the I-Team heard from viewers complaining that they were victimized twice. First by thieves, then by the city. Turns out it's because of a law designed to keep abandoned cars off city streets. In Milwaukee, the law says you can't park unregistered vehicles on city streets -- ever. Still, in just the last 18 months, records show Public Works' parking checkers, wrote more than 45,000 tickets to people who did. Since there are so many, the checkers only tow repeat offenders and the ones with registrations expired six months or more. However, every vehicle with an expired license plate gets a $50 ticket, even if the registration is up-to-date. The law doesn't just make you register your car, you also have to display it. "This may sound harsh, but we have to go by what we see," said veteran parking checker Margaret Casey. "If it's not shown on the plate, that's what we issue the violation for." No free passes. That means guys like Brian Davison get tickets, too. "I woke up to them taking my vehicle and ran out there to explain the situation," said Davison. A couple weeks earlier, thieves stole the youth minister's registration sticker off his SUV's license plate. With no off-street parking at home, Davison had to leave it on the street overnight while waiting for a new sticker. "When I reported it to the police, they told me that if you have this incident report and anybody gives you any grief, just go ahead and show them the incident report, and it should be fine," Davison told the I-Team. Still, checkers ticketed Davison --a crime victim-- twice, then towed his truck. "I think it makes people not want to be in Milwaukee," Davison sighed. And it happens all the time. "The Milwaukee Police Department is dealing with a substantial number of people who are victims of crime who are now getting citations for improperly registered vehicles," Deputy Inspector Mary Hoerig explained at a recent meeting of the Common Council's Public Safety Committee. Last week, Hoerig told aldermen the department ends up fixing 70-80 tickets like that, written by DPW parking checkers, every month. "There is a feeling amongst many of those officers, who release those tickets, that these citizens are being victimized twice," Hoerig said. By time Brian Davison he was done paying for those two tickets and the tow, it cost him $200. Davison said it's unfortunate the city seems to be making money off crime victims. "You have to understand that we can't assume that every license plate that's not on a vehicle or a license plate without an updated tag is stolen," said DPW Administrative Services Director, Dorinda Floyd, who heads up the city's parking enforcement. Still, DPW figures it writes around 1,500 tickets every year for having expired tags on a car with current registration. There's apparently no way to tell how many of those stickers were actually stolen. "It isn't the parking enforcement officers' responsibility to figure out why you're not displaying registration," explained Floyd. "You just have to display it." Even if someone takes it. "Don't make it so black and white," Davison argued back. "Obviously, this was a situation where I wasn't doing anything wrong. I applied for a new registration right away. I told the police." However, the way the law is written, DPW admits crime victims sometimes get burned. "I can't be responsible for their situation," said Floyd. "All we can do is try to do our best in terms of enforcing the law." Right now, DPW is working with the Common Council to lower the fine for improper display from $50 to $15. There will be more on this story Thursday on Live at 5 on TODAY'S TMJ4.