MTA cops nab record number of bridge and tunnel toll cheats in a single day
A Mazda CX-5 driver with $57,000 worth of unpaid tolls and a 30-year-old Mustang driver who broke down and cried were among the biggest toll scofflaws to be nabbed as cops at the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge set a record Wednesday for the number of toll beaters caught in one day.
The top cheat had more than 500 violations dating back to May 2021, most of them picked up driving over the Verrazzano, the MTA said.
“He said he wasn’t aware he owed any tolls. I went inside the glove compartment and there were a bunch of orange envelopes with the notices inside,” TBTA Officer David Rivera recalled of the “biggest fish” of 21 toll cheats his team caught, their most in a single day.
The 30-year-old Mustang driver, meanwhile, “got his father on the phone, and he was crying, and then he handed me the phone and said, ‘Here, talk to my father,’” Rivera said. “I just explained to his father that the car was unregistered, and we were taking it in.”
The MTA estimates it loses $50 million a year to toll evaders, but officials said stings like Wednesday’s moves helped them recoup over 40% of those losses in 2022.
Officers from the MTA’s Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority on Wednesday seized the 21 vehicles and took their drivers home or to the train, officials said.
The car owners can retrieve the vehicles after paying their owed debts, which include unpaid tolls as well as $100 fines issued to designated “persistent toll violators” every time they pass through an MTA crossing.
A persistent violator is someone who has at least three unpaid tolls in a five-year-period, said MTA Bridges and Tunnels Chief of Operations Richard Hildebrand.
Cops identified the scofflaws using the same “cashless tolling” technology that snaps license plates and sends invoices to their owners.
“I don’t think the public realizes the technology we have today,” TBTA Officer Reginald Lede told The Post. “Within one or two seconds of passing through the gantry, we’re notified in the car that this plate is on the bridge, a known toll violator. The gantry notifies us instantly.”
Crying is not an unusual response from the violators, the officers said.
“Most people are pretty calm until they realize they’re losing their car,” said Officer Rivera. Eventually, they give it up but, you know, it’s hard for a lot of people. Their car is their baby. Or it could be there they’re in the car with their family or they’re going to work, it’s, it’s bad sometimes.”
Sometimes drivers know they’re about to lose the car and flee — but the MTA opts not to give chase, and wait for the next time the driver tries to cross an authority bridge.
Of the 21 cars seized on Wednesday, 17 were seized on the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. The bridge typically has the most toll cheats, the officers said.
“Our officers are notified almost instantly when the persistent toll violator hits the gantry,” Hildebrand said.
The drivers were not arrested for their unpaid fines, and did not include anyone guilty of obscuring their plate with leaves, strickers or some other kind of covering.
TBTA officers have caught 40,000 covered plates since the beginning of 2017, Hildebrand said.
The MTA submits 100 vehicle registrations for suspension each week and 90% of vehicle owners whose cars are impounded wind up paying what they owe, he said.
“We take the vehicle,” Hildebrand said. “If the registration has been suspended for not paying tolls it cannot be re-registered until the fees have been satisfied.”