HOUSTON — Imagine being fined for traffic violations...while your car is sitting in a junkyard.
One man learned the hard way about what happens when you don't save your license plates.
Lee Oursler, like most of us, dreads opening his mailbox, because every few days he receives a toll booth bill in the mail.
Except their not bills. They're violations totaling over $1,000 from states he hasn't even visited.
"I received two notices of violation," Oursler says. "Then they keep sending more. Here's a stack of all the violations."
His son-in-law showed off a stack of EZ Pass toll bills from New York and New Jersey. But Oursler lives in Ohio and hasn't been to New Jersey in decades.
It all started when Oursler totaled his minivan, which was towed away with license plates still intact.
Now the plate is popping up on toll booth cameras all around New York City, and no one can stop it.
"We don't know what the answer is," Ken Heim, Oursler's son-in-law, said. "We still don't know how to get an end to it, so I find that very frustrating."
A license plate where the little tag hasn't expired yet is very valuable to thieves. That's because a toll booth plate reader will take a picture of it and send the bill directly to your home.
The rules on license plates vary from state to state, but a spokesperson for Ohio's Motor Vehicle Department told us you should never hand over cars with plates attached.
Ask about transferring them to a new vehicle, or turn them in to your local DMV office to be destroyed.
If they're towed away after an accident, work with your insurance company to get the plates back. Or have them destroyed by the insurance company.
Lastly, if your plates are ever lost or stolen, report it to the DMV and police. That way you can make sure tickets aren't going onto your driving record.
As for Oursler, we reached out to EZ Pass authorities, but so far there hasn't been an update.
"If I would have taken the license plate off, that would have been the end of it right there," Oursler said.
So grab those plates before turning in any car, so you don't waste your money.