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PAPD Officer Jason Malice spotted the truck after it passed through without a license plate, the Port Authority’s Steve Coleman told CLIFFVIEW PILOT this afternoon.
“The pickup was pulling a trailer, and the plate on the trailer was bent in a manner to prevent the toll lane camera from reading it,” Coleman said, adding that there weren’t any E-ZPass tags in the vehicle.
Hicks, 39, of Riverdale, GA, had a valid Georgia driver’s license but expired registrations for both the pickup and the trailer, he said.
The license plate was inside the cab and the screws for attaching it were in his pocket, Coleman said.
Hicks “claimed to be unfamiliar with the area,” he said, “but his story was contradicted when he later [said that] he was born in Harlem and raised in Paterson.
Port Authority police released Hicks on a summons charging him with theft of services and tampering with public records.
The case is part of stepped-up enforcement, which began last year at the authority’s bridges and tunnels, to catch toll evaders and other scofflaws.
The detail also often turns up drivers or passengers with warrants and or carrying contraband, the PAPD says.
PHOTOS: Courtesy Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
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