Southern Tier victim of license plate fraud gets visit from police

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — WIVB News 4’s series on license plate fraud continues hearing from a man from the Southern Tier who turned in his plates, but was then hit with thousands of dollars in fraudulent toll bills.

And that’s not all — the family got a surprise visit from police.

“I knew something bad was going to happen at some point,” Rob said.

News 4 is not revealing Rob’s identity because his old license plate number could be part of an ongoing criminal investigation.

In April 2023, Rob and his wife surrendered their license plates to the Department of Motor Vehicles in Jamestown for the plates to be destroyed because they were peeling. Months later, they started getting toll violations in the mail from the New York City area tied to their old plate.

“I was furious, but I was very curious as to why that was,” Rob said.

They received toll bills from minor to excessive: from $13 to $515, all the way up to one bill for a whopping $4,564. Tolls from places they hadn’t been to like New Rochelle and crossings such as the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge and the Throgs Neck Bridge.

“That made us very nervous and a lot of sleepless nights,” Rob said.

As the tolls piled up, they received one collection notice demanding payment.

“[It] makes you very nervous when you think that somebody’s going to lock up your account or send you to Small Claims or wherever court,” Rob said.

New York City’s Department of Finance said this case was referred to them in May, and that one ticket has been dismissed and two parking summonses have been flagged in their system as fraud. Plus, Rob and his wife’s old plate number has been placed on the New York Police Department’s and sheriff’s boot/tow list.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said all erroneous MTA tolls charged to them have been dismissed, and that they won’t get any more bogus tolls. As for that collection notice, it was dropped.

The situation involving Rob took a dramatic turn when they got a knock at the door several months ago from deputies with the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff Jim Quattrone said police in Nassau County, N.Y., asked his office for help in investigating a car with Rob’s old license plate that had been involved in a crime. Quattrone said his office helped connect Rob and Nassau County Police so Rob could explain their situation.

The visit from police is something Rob says he’ll never forget — it happened to be on his daughter’s birthday.

“It was some sort of theft crime,” Rob said. “It was a big crime from what they were saying. They stated that it was a theft of a quarter million dollars that was linked to those plates.”

It’s a crime Rob had nothing to do with.

“In one case I did feel like it was going to lead to this,” he said. “In another case, I thought it was like, now maybe someone will do something in regards to these plates.”

Rob said he thinks an investigation needs to be launched into the surrendering of license plates in Chautauqua County.

“I think the investigation is good,” he said. “I think they need to pass some laws to protect citizens that are doing their duty as far as turning things in.”

Quattrone said he doesn’t believe an investigation is needed into Chautauqua County’s handling of license plates and that the proper procedures were followed.

News 4 reached out to Nassau County Police on what they were investigating, but never heard back. Meanwhile, State Senator George Borrello has introduced legislation that if approved, would increase penalties for those convicted of license plate fraud.