HOUSTON -- You've heard the saying "pictures don't lie." Maybe not, but one woman said Houston's red-light cameras certainly don't tell the whole story.

After months of calls to the city's red-light program division, she's asking Amy to help clear her name. KPRC Local 2 Investigative reporter Amy Davis has yet another case of a driver getting the red-light runaround.

Christina Tyler tried to solve this problem herself.  She said she spent four months making calls, filling out paperwork and faxing it in.

When none of that worked, she called Amy.  

The camera flashed at the corner of the Sam Houston Parkway and Bellaire Boulevard and Christina Tyler got the ticket.

There's the first problem.

"It was a picture of a vehicle I used to have," Tyler explained. "I haven't had it in over five years."

When Tyler last saw her Toyota Echo in 2004, it was smashed up from a car accident.  She said the other driver's insurance company told her it couldn't be repaired.

But five years later it's back on the road, apparently running red lights, and doing it all with Christina Tyler's maiden name still on the title.

"It's not fair that someone's driving around with my identity for five years for crying out loud," Tyler told Local 2 Investigates. "I just don't think that's right."

Tyler called the city's red-light camera program and tracked down every document they asked for – no easy job after five years, four moves and a marriage.

She also asked the Houston Police Department to help her find out who's driving the car in her name.

"I even had an identity theft police report made,” Tyler said.  "I have a case number and everything. He (an officer) said he was gonna do something about it and it's been four months."

The red-light camera division acted much quicker than that officer investigating the identification theft.

  Even after Tyler sent off the proper paperwork, the warnings kept coming. The last one came from an attorney's office and told her the city would file a civil suit and block her from registering her vehicle when the plates expired if she didn't pay up.

"I got $100. I could pay it, but I'm not going to. That's not the point of it," said Tyler.  "What if they did a drive-by or a hit-and-run and all they caught was oh, I know, the license plate? So they tell the officer and then they come to my house."

We made one phone call to HPD, and like so many times before, for Eileen Donevant in January and for Ken Braunstein in 2007, the department deleted the ticket. 

  We asked HPD what I know you're asking: Why does it take a call from Local 2 Investigates to get  the matter resolved?

HPD chalked it up to yet another isolated case and said drivers have to remember the red-light camera program is still young. They said the city is still working out the kinks.

Houston City Council passed an ordinance that allows the city to attach an unpaid fine notice to your tags. Until you pay any outstanding red light camera citations, you won't be able to renew them.

HPD said there's no set date when that new ordinance will take effect, but it will be within a few months.

To find out what you should always do when you sell or get rid of a car to make sure you're not liable for toll road fines or tickets, check out the Ask Amy blog.