Potential NJ toll evader spotted on the GSP

Heads up to anyone trying to evade tolls - you never know who might catch you in the act. Or, as in our case, catch you potentially attempting to evade the toll.

This happened toward the end of the 2024 summer season. I was driving home from a Mets game in New York City (my one son is a huge fan). It was myself, my son, and two of our friends in the car.

It was an evening game, so by the time we got back to Jersey, it was around 11 p.m. I don't remember how this came up, but at one point earlier in the evening we were talking about how there was an increase in New York with people trying to evade tolls.

One of those ways was to obstruct the license plate. What we didn't know at the time was that we would end up catching someone potentially attempting this on our way home. What's more? It wasn't a New York plate, but a Jersey one.

Where was it?

We were on the Garden State Parkway heading southbound over the Driscoll Bridge. It was here when we noticed something odd about one particular car.

Something didn't seem quite right about its license plate. At first, they were one lane over from us on the left, but eventually, they crossed into our lane and ended up right in front of us.

The photo of this vehicle is below. Do you notice anything odd about the plate? Yes, the photo's a little blurry, but you should be able to tell something isn't quite right about that plate.

Since I was driving, I asked my friend if he could snap the photo so we could document this. The photo itself is a bit blurred since we were traveling at highway speeds, but you can still make it out.

Again, we probably wouldn't have thought too much into this if it weren't for our earlier conversation regarding toll cheats using their license plates to avoid paying the fare. Perhaps this isn't just a problem in New York after all.

A New Jersey plate partially obstructed on purpose. Take another look at where the arrows are pointing in the pic below. That's the actual license plate bent over so you couldn't read the back half of the plate.

An issue in NY... and NJ

And that's exactly what the issue was we were talking about earlier. The practice of people bending their license plates over so the electronic tolls can't completely pick them up.

Now, since New Jersey requires two plates on their vehicles, we were curious if the front plate was the same way. Meaning, that if this was done on purpose, then the front would most likely also be bent.

So we got into the next lane over and started passing them on the left. We unfortunately couldn't grab a pic that time, but all three passengers in the car said that once they had a view, they were able to see that the front plate was also bent.

This was just before the Raraton toll plaza in South Amboy heading southbound. The vehicle was in one of the high-speed E-ZPass lanes, which means it absolutely appeared that it was looking to evade the toll.

Is it legal?

New Jersey state law makes it pretty clear what you can and cannot do when it comes to paying highway fares (you can read more about the New Jersey law here).

If one plate was bent by accident then I could make the argument that this person wasn't trying to evade the tolls on purpose. But the fact that both plates were bent in the same manner covering a decent portion of the plate clearly points to someone who seemed to know what they were doing.

But to whoever this person is? Don't worry. If you were doing this on purpose, it will eventually catch up to you and you'll be paying a lot more than the fare costs in the near future.

The above post reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 Sunday morning host & content contributor Mike Brant. Any opinions expressed are his own.