Fake License Plate Scams Seen 3 Times In 30 Minutes On RFK Bridge

ASTORIA, QUEENS — MTA cops arrested three drivers within the span of thirty minutes last week, when they caught the motorists using fake license plates to try and avoid paying the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge toll.

At around 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday June 9, the bridge officers caught the first driver using a fake temporary New Jersey license plate while crossing the RFK bridge, which connects Manhattan and the Bronx to Astoria.

Within the next 20 minutes — around 9:40 a.m. and again at 9:50 a.m. — the officers pulled over two other drivers who were using fake temporary license plates from Texas and New Jersey, respectively.

All three drivers, who the MTA identified as New York residents, face misdemeanor charges, which might include up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

The three arrests were part of a “targeted initiative” that combined law enforcement and tolling agency intelligence and “review of fraudulent use patterns of travel,” according to Richard L. Hildebrand II, Vice President and Chief of Operations.

Hildebrand added that the operation “should serve as a message to anyone else trying to evade paying tolls: DON’T DO IT!”

President of MTA Bridges and Tunnels, Daniel F. DeCrescenzo Jr., said that driving with fake license plates “is a crime that equates to lost revenue for the MTA and is unfair to law-abiding motorists.”

“We have the staff and technology to identify and apprehend these individuals, as we have with these arrests,” he added, echoing Hildebrand’s point that using a fake license plate means risking arrest.

Wednesday’s arrests come a couple of months after the MTA raised the RFK bridge toll by 7 percent — amounting to as much as $10.17 per-trip, for non E-ZPass drivers — in an effort to generate profits for the city's transportation system amid multibillion-dollar losses during the pandemic.