Exclusive: Suffolk woman faces over $16,500 in tickets nationwide tied to a license plate she surrendered 4 years prior
Four years after surrendering her custom license plate, a Suffolk woman continues getting tickets mailed to her for traffic offenses she didn't commit.
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A Suffolk woman is pleading for help after her surrendered license plate continues to rack up tickets she’s expected to pay.
Beda Koorey, of Huntington, says for the last four years, her life has become a never-ending chorus of the same line to law enforcement officers nationwide.
"That wasn't me. That's not my car. I don’t have a car," she says.
She surrendered her old custom license plate in April 2020. Koorey says the plate number was picked by her ex-husband who loved the TV show Star Trek.
The problem is that the plate number, NCC 1701, continues to get ticketed.
"The mailman comes. I go, 'Here comes another ticket,'" she said. "And I'm getting phone calls from all over the country."
She’s even gotten calls from Montreal, Canada.
"I had to explain to that officer that it’s not me, I’ve surrendered my car in 2020, that I've never been to Canada," said Koorey.
Koorey hasn't even driven a car since June 2020 and doesn't have a car now. She even showed News 12 a letter from the Department of Motor Vehicles confirming her license plate was surrendered and destroyed.
Traffic cameras also capture different vehicles with her old license plate committing the offenses nationwide - from Oklahoma to Washington to Illinois to Texas and to Florida. She’s had to reach out to the Florida attorney general for help to get the tickets dismissed.
Now, she's facing an over $16,500 charge from New York City for offenses she says she couldn't have committed.
"I'm blaming the Department of Motor Vehicles because when these people are inputting those plates, it's coming back to me,” she said.
When asked why she keeps getting these tickets sent to her, a DMV spokesperson says it’s not involved in the ticketing process.
The spokesperson goes on to say, “The customer should direct their concerns directly to the tolling authority.”
Koorey says she’s sharing her story in the hopes that someone can help her.
"Do something cause I'm getting to the point where the tickets just sit there and I just want to cry,” she said.
The DMV tells News 12 once a personalized plate, like Koorey's, is surrendered, the plate can't be reissued for a year. Regular alpha-numeric plates do not repeat after they are issued.
The DMV also says nothing in its system connects Koorey to her former plate and says it's up to each billing entity to make sure they're utilizing the most up-to-date DMV data.
