Posted on 04/20/2014 11:32:10 AM PDT by EveningStar
A New York City taxi driver is accused of avoiding bridge tolls more than 3,000 times in two years by tailgating cars in front of him and slipping through the tollbooth before the barrier came down, prosecutors said Thursday.
The 69-year-old driver, Rodolfo Sanchez, is charged with third-degree larceny, theft of services and fifth-degree possession of stolen property, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnewyork.com ...
Will an armed Port Authority task force show up to collect the toll fees?
Cheap and dangerous. What a combination.
Hahahaha! He was “thinking outside the box” like we always tell people to do.
The real highway robbery thieves are the govt bridge toll companies themselves. They make a massive amount of money off bridge tolls. And the toll prices keep going up not insignificantly.
Part of me likes the guy’s thinking.
If it’s a Queens DA involved in the case, it sounds like the tolls he evaded were at crossings owned by MTA Bridges & Tunnels, not the Port Authority.
Yeah, but the problem is that there are plenty of “free” bridges he could have used and he wouldn’t have had to pay a dime in tolls.
With EZPass, we drivers don't even notice it anymore. Paying those tolls is just a cumulative total that appears on the credit card bill each month. I wouldn't even know how to contest it if it's wrong.
It took more than 3,000 times to catch him. Who says the government is inefficient?
Something else to consider is that I believe NYC has a toll surcharge for cab fares. This guy may have been charging his passengers for the tolls and then keeping the money for himself.
Part of me wonders if he was still charging his passengers the tolls that he wasn’t paying as part of their fare.
I would not put that past a cabbie at all.
I thought all bridges in and out of nyc were toll bridges.
How does it work with cabs? I mean if you wind up having to go a long way out of the way the passenger would complain he’s trying to jack up the fare. If you take a toll bridge with a passenger I’d assume the passenger pays the toll fare as part of the overall fare cost.
Or did he only do this without passengers, coming in and leaving nyc?
Yes- the tolls are typically tacked onto the fare.
Unless the driver is offering a flat rate to/from a certain destination (ie: an airport)
You see this every now and then in New Jersey with toll scofflaws on the Garden State Parkway and New Jersey Turnpike. Every now and then there will be a news story about the state cracking down on toll scofflaws, and invariably there isn't a single person or company (companies with fleets of limousines or delivery vehicles are usually among the worst offenders) with less than $10,000 in unpaid tolls among the targets.
that’s exactly why they like ez-pass. and when rates go up you won’t really know that either. until it’s too late. won’t know if it’s a potential overcharge or rate increase. how to contest anything? almost impossible.
how do they know this guy did this several thousand times? from the license plate?
ifthey knew that they could just go after his business bank accounts. they do this for other people for far, far less.
All bridges into NYC from New Jersey are toll bridges, and the MTA collects tolls on the major bridges and tunnels between the boroughs. But if you look at a map of New York City you’ll find plenty of bridges serving local streets where no tolls are collected. The Brooklyn Bridge, for example, has no toll. Neither does the Manhattan Bridge or the Williamsburg Bridge. Most of the bridges between Manhattan and the Bronx have no tolls, either.
Article says he had an inactive EzPass, and they simply tacked on to the charges every reading of the EzPass where the pass didn’t pay the toll. Looks like they only have video evidence of a couple times crossing without paying. I’m guessing that there are lanes for EzPass and for paying cash, and the paying cash doesn’t scan the EzPass. Otherwise this case is going to fall apart.
Just avoiding the tolls Americans won’t avoid.
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