Toll Cheats To Be Hunted Down, Killed

The Inquirer’s Edward Colimore writes today about the nation’s number one scourage: Scofflaws who don’t pay tolls.

Apparently, drivers dodge $2 million in tolls on the Atlantic City Expressway and the Delaware River bridges, $6 million on the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway and $9 million on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. One man even had $2,000 in outstanding tolls, somehow.

Troopers in New Jersey have decided to start cracking down on these men and women who steal up to and including 50 cents per ride at some places. Although he seems to insist the toll on the Atlantic City Expressway is only 25 cents, Colimore does a nice job of explaining the lengths people will go to evade tolls:

Some try to thwart toll cameras by covering their license plates. One man who was caught on the New Jersey Turnpike had devised a pulley system that covered his plate when he pulled a string. [...]

One motorist left a sand shark head in the basket at the Cape May toll plaza on the Garden State Parkway. Another driver duct-taped the change basket at the Pleasantville exit of the Atlantic City Expressway, then collected the money later.

That one driver was using a little-known provision in New Jersey law: Tolls can be paid by sand shark heads of equal or greater value to the charge in American dollars. Look it up.

Fighting a runaway problem [Inquirer]