With 'First Of Its Kind' Partnership, Pennsylvania Turnpike To Crack Down On Toll Cheats With Most Aggressive Effort Ever
BENSALEM, Pa. (CBS) -- The Pennsylvania Turnpike is cracking down on toll cheats with its most aggressive effort ever. On Wednesday, officials unveiled a special investigative unit that was created to go after the most egregious toll violaters.
Officials say the state's top toll cheats are from Bucks and Montgomery Counties, collectively owing more than $20 million in unpaid tolls and fees last year.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike is now teaming up with the district attorneys in Bucks and Montgomery Counties, forming a partnership designed specifically to go after drivers who zip through E-ZPass lanes time and time again and never pay the toll.
"It's a first of its kind partnership in the nation," Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission CEO Mark Compton said.
"The drivers that we're investigating repeatedly and chronically choose to break the law," Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub said.
One admitted toll cheat is 37-year-old Jarrett Stiff, of Trevose. He wracked up more than $120,000 in unpaid tolls and fees over five years.
CBS3 went to a home listed as his address, but no one answered.
But Stiff isn't alone. Some of the turnpike's most egregious violators are from Bucks and Montgomery Counties, where there was $21 million in unpaid tolls and fees last year.
"That's a lot of money," said Tasha Dugan, of Germantown.
"I mean, you'd think they have to catch up with them somewhere along the way," said Al Drucker, of Freehold, New Jersey.
But the new unit, which has two full-time investigators, is now tasked with recouping that money.
That's good news to Michael Lang, of Conshohocken, who travels around the tri-state area as a salesman and does pay the toll -- often costing him more than $60 per month.
"Good. Go after them," Lang said. "It's to make our roads drivable. It's a pretty big deal."
The two investigators are being paid for by a state grant that is expected to last at least three years.
