Brickbat: Texas Tag Trouble

North Richland Hills, Texas, residents Dale and Anne Smith received bills totaling $1,065 for unpaid tolls from the North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA). The bills were for 11 different vehicles, none of which are owned by the Smiths. When they tried to clear the matter up, the NTTA told the Smiths it was up to them to prove they didn’t own the cars. The Smiths even got the police involved. The cops found all of the license plate numbers on the bills sent to the Smiths were from temporary tags connected to an Arlington car dealership. But that wasn’t enough for the NTTA. Finally, when a local newspaper began digging around on the story, the NTTA told the Smiths it was voiding their debt because it had discovered the vehicles belonged to someone else.