January 12, 2016
Maryland Transportation Authority
P.O. Box 17600
Baltimore, MD 21297-7600
Re: Mailing #T081572525593
Video Toll Transaction T081572525593-00001
Ladies and Gentleman:
I am in receipt of your mailing, dated nominally January 1, informing me that I owe $1.40, toll due, from a November 14 trip through The ICC from New Hampshire Avenue to U.S. 29, the Columbia Pike. You helpfully enclosed a low resolution photo of a car as proof of toll due.
Enclosed find my “Request for Transfer of Liability Form.” I am writing to explain my position, as your form does not appear to allow for the possibility that your personnel or machines have misread the plate number from the vehicle in question, and this is clearly what has happened.
My wife drives--and I am the owner of record of--a silver, 2010 Toyota Corolla with the marker number 5BX1417. Though it is hard to see on the photo provided (and you seem not to have a better one on line), it appears that the vehicle pictured is not silver. It may not be a Toyota, either (look at the headlight shape--VW?). And the plate appears to be 5BK1417.
That this is not my car is further evidenced by the time stamp. Although MDTA has no way of knowing this, my wife and I are habitually asleep, in bed, at 4:41 a.m., and nowhere near Montgomery County. We were asleep on the day and time in question, so if either of us was also driving, your notice serves as a wake-up call (if you will) for one or both of us to seek medical attention. If this proves to be the case, thank you; you may have saved lives. But we’re as yet unconvinced, and there is but one other possibility: although we can’t prove definitively that our car was not used to travel to Montgomery County on that early morning, we suggest you check the toll records and see if our vehicle went through the Harbor Tunnel or any other tolls between Joppa and the toll booth in question just prior to this incident. Pay attention to any photos taken through the windshield, because there is one household member who does tend to rise early and stay active: our cat, Stockholm.
Stockholm has not been known to steal cars, or drive at all, but he is a foundling, and we don’t know his history, criminal or otherwise. As MDTA (and the State Police) appear to have cameras everywhere, it should be a simple enough matter to show definitively who or what was at the wheel of the vehicle in question--and what the license plate number actually was.
If our cat was at the wheel--or if I was, or my wife, and the car was indeed our Corolla--I will happily pay the $1.40 without complaint. If not, well, not.
Thank you for your time and attention.
(Signed)
+
(I received no response to this, fwiw).
