ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — An Orange County man found out someone else had been driving around with the same Florida license plate as the one on his car, but the state said it couldn't help him; he'd have to pay for another plate.
The man has never transferred the tag to another car. It's an original tag he's had for eight years, so he knew something was wrong.
Delroy Clarke was confused when he got 10 citations in the mail for running tolls on Goldenrod, Curry Ford and Hiawassee.
"I was amazed, because I know I don't travel those roads," he said.
Clarke has a BMW, but a different model than the E-PASS camera captured burning the toll. When he looked at the picture closely, he realized the driver had his same tag number.
"Somebody is driving around with the same plate as me. He could do something crazy and I would be in the hole for that," Clarke said.
Clarke has seen WFTV's reports on people losing their driver's licenses over toll violations. So, he said, he called the DMV and was told he needed to buy a new tag; there was nothing the agency could do to help him.
"Nobody wants to take responsibility for their actions. They want to make it seem as though it's my problem and I got to deal with it," he said.
Clarke spent several hours at the tax office Wednesday and paid $43 for a new tag, but he's convinced the DMV printed two plates with the same number.
"I think the fault is somewhere within their department," Clarke said.
The DMV told WFTV it rarely sees the same plate number on two different vehicles and believes the driver of the other BMW may have forged the tag. After WFTV started asking questions, the DMV agreed to refund Clarke for the new plate.
"That's good, that's good. I could use my money," Clarke said.
The Department of Motor Vehicles has now flagged the tag number to see if the driver continues to run the tolls. The Expressway Authority agreed to clear all of Clarke's toll violations once it gets a notification from the DMV.
WFTV
