I work remotely and a few months ago I took a train to the office for a few days to get some face-face time with my colleagues. On my last day, one of my colleagues offered to give me a ride back to the train station. There was a hidden speed camera and he got flashed.
At the time he just brushed it off like it was nothing and we went on with our lives.
Anyway, a month ago he was like “Hey remember that speeding ticket I was supposed to get? I never got anything! Maybe it was a dud” and we laughed it off, but the weekend immediately after, he sends me a message saying “So I just got the ticket. How are we going to do this?” I asked for clarification because I wasn’t really sure what he meant, but it turns out he wants me to pitch in for the ticket.
At this point I’m just thinking “But…I wasn’t driving….” and we have a small back and forth about this and I assumed we had resolved it and put it behind me.
This morning, his wife messages me basically saying that it is incredibly unfair of me to have not paid my share of the ticket and that they expect me to pay them back because they paid it in full. I was really surprised to receive this message because I assumed it was resolved and quite honestly, it wasn’t expensive at all and I could easily part with the money for the entire ticket if need be. To be told “He wouldn’t have had a speeding ticket if he wasn’t driving you to the train station” felt especially rich to me considering that he actually wouldn’t have had a speeding ticket if he wasn’t speeding – something I had no control over at all as a passenger. I have not yet responded to her and to be honest, I feel like if I don’t pay them, I’m being the petty person. At the same time, on principle it feels wrong to give in.
Extra info: I know this particular colleague quite well as we used to work at another company together. I know his family and they know mine as they’ve come to visit and stay with us as well and I would say we are relatively close – as far as colleagues go.
I also know for a fact that they aren’t exactly struggling financially. We work in one of the top 5 most paid industries. I know that I get paid pretty handsomely for my work, and the guy has a pretty senior role to me and definitely earns quite a lot more than I do. The industry wis wife works in also has her earning nearly 10k more than he does a year from what he’s told me, and as I mentioned, we get paid pretty well. I wouldn’t have thought twice otherwise, but I just feel like this is petty on their part, especially considering how small of an amount the fine actually is.
Info: I was not running late, nor was I asking him to pick up the pace at any point in time. I had initially planned to walk to the train station, but he kindly volunteered to take me.
Edit: Put in the actual ticket amount instead of what I was meant to pay.