A Long Island retiree says she's getting traffic tickets from all over the country, but that’s puzzling because she stopped driving 4 years ago. Back in 2020, Beda Koorey stopped driving, sold her car, and surrendered her license plates. Yet, many walks to her mailbox bring the 76-year-old retiree the stress of more and more traffic tickets. Her old custom plates honored Star Trek and had the same number as the Starship Enterprise — NCC-1701. However, for $15 on Amazon and eBay, some Trekkies have been easily replacing their real plates with the same novelty plates, and getting away with it. The tickets they’ve been getting from all over the country are being mailed to Koorey. So far, she has received tickets for running a red light, speeding, parking in a school zone, and she also gets hit with E-ZPass tolls. She explained that she had even received a phone call from an Ohio police chief because the plates were spotted on a car involved in a robbery. Koorey noted that she often runs out of stamps trying to answer every summons. So far, she has been billed tens of thousands of dollars. “I can’t afford it. I’m on a fixed income,” said Koorey. The New York State Department of Motor Vehicles says novelty plates being used illegally on the roads is a matter for law enforcement, and nothing in its system connects Koorey to her former license plate.
