Posted on 04/22/2019 2:02:55 PM PDT by Gamecock
The Florida Highway Patrol says they arrested a man who took extreme measures to avoid paying Florida tolls.
WFTV in Orlando reports that Joshua Concepcion-West, 27, installed a device on his car that shielded his license plate with the push of a button on a remote control.
Troopers caught Concepcion-West dropping the "curtain" over his tag on the east-west expressway at Conway Road in Orlando, right before he went through the toll plaza.
"After he cleared the tool booth, the tag cover came back up and the tag was exposed again," said FHP Sgt. Kim Montes.
"Because the tag was obscured, we don't know yet how many times this vehicle has run the toll, so we don't know how much money he's stolen from the state," said Montes.
Items similar to the remote control curtain that Concepcion-West installed on his car can be found online. Some products hide the license plate, others make them look distorted on camera shots.
Concepcion-West is facing a felony charge (includes petit theft and cheating or gross fraud) for failure to pay a $1.25 toll.
I crossed it in 2007, and it was free, and as far as I know, it has remained free.
Other places where tolls have been removed include Kentucky’s parkway system, the on- and off-ramps on I-95 between Baltimore, MD and Wilmington, DE (the two mainline tolls are still there), I-95 between Richmond and Petersburg in Virgina, a number of bridges in Jacksonville, FL, and finally . . . I-30 between Dallas and Fort Worth.
Nothing beyond letting everyone know it happened over two years ago.
Many of the people posting probably don’t realize it is old news.
No slight towards you, just making sure FReepers know it.
I have been guilty of not checking dates of articles and reacting with the idea it was a current event.
No doubt that Florida has a great thing going.
Out of staters pay for a big part of the state’s budget.
It’s a great scam if you can make it work.
on the east-west expressway at Conway Road in Orlando
***********
When that toll road was proposed and built we were promised that when it was paid for the tolls would be dropped... That was 40+ years ago ,, the tolls are still in effect... who is stealing from who?
That’s why I keep one in the trunk.
We don’t have a state income tax so we have to raise revenue other ways.
Government of Santa Rosa County here in the panhandle did a study of the toll bridge that people used to access the beaches in Navarre. They discovered that the tolls barely paid the salaries of the toll collectors, so they abolished the tolls and took down the toll booths.
The City of Jacksonville tried to keep their toll bridge on I-95 across the St.Johns River, even after the bridge had been paid off, but federal law would not allow that, it being an interstate highway, so they had to tear down the toll booths.
We go thru central Florida fairly often to my wife’s mother in Palm Bay. We avoid the tolls using our GPS and it’s no big deal. You can program it to go ‘No Tolls’ and you use the ‘back roads’, which are more scenic anyway, and the time difference is minimal................
I lived in central Florida back when they had that idiot toll booth on I-95 in Jacksonville. It was a complete nightmare.
The Lion’s Gate Bridge in Vancouver Canada.
Oh yeah: the Coquihalla highway, also in British Columbia
Old Richard Pryor skit:
Wino: Hey fool, why don’t you get yourself a job?
Junkie: GET A JOB? $#!+, get a job. I worked 5 years in a row when I was in the joint. Pressing them MFing license plates. I’m a license plate pressing MF’er too...
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