Meet the man exposing NYC’s toll-dodging license plate cheats and their sneaky tricks – with COPS ‘the worst offenders’ in $100M-a-year scam

A vigilante patrols the streets of New York City, exposing drivers with illegal license plates and the very sneaky tricks they use to hide their true identities.

Gersh Kuntzman, 58, cycles around the Big Apple armed with a camera to capture the perpetrators and a Sharpie and screwdriver to fix their plates.

But completely cleaning the streets is a nearly impossible task. Corrupt license plates are everywhere – and according to Kuntzman, the main perpetrators are the police.

Scofflaws’ tactics range from bending license plates to hide license plate numbers to deliberately scraping off numbers and letters. Some even use magnetic, fake leaves or reflective covers to hide their signs.

The practice helps perpetrators avoid toll roads, speed cameras and red light cameras. Criminals can also use it to cover up crimes, including car theft.

In New York, costs are estimated to be as high as $100 million per year. But tampering with license plates is a problem nationwide.

During a drive with Kuntzman on Thursday, DailyMail.com witnessed his astute ability to track down perpetrators firsthand. And it took a matter of minutes to find two separate vehicles whose license plates allegedly violated New York traffic laws.

We met Kuntzman outside his office in downtown Manhattan at 3pm and picked up Citibikes for a tour of the “hotspots.”

He explained that hidden license plates are widespread in the area around New York City Hall and the courts, including the criminal court where Donald Trump is currently on trial.

And that’s partly because police and court personnel are among the worst offenders, Kuntzman said.

The first case on our drive was near a row of parked cars on Federal Plaza, near the New York County Supreme Court.

But it wasn’t a police officer. The worn license plates indicated that the Ford Explored belonged to a member of the media, identified by the letters “NYP.”

Kuntzman grabbed his phone and his sniper and started filming.

“Let’s just fix this up so it looks good,” he says, redrawing the sign so the numbers and letters are clearly visible.

He also manages the license plate via a website that checks for fines linked to the license plate. The inspection revealed numerous traffic violations, the last of which occurred in April 2023.

“Maybe he’ll get those tickets again,” Kuntzman adds after the board is cleared.

Not even nine minutes later we’re driving along nearby Vesey Street when Kuntzman calls out, “Let’s stop here, I think I see another one.”

He points to a silver Mercedes-Benz whose number appears to be hidden on the front plate. A check of the back plate shows that another, different number is also hidden.

On the dashboard, a sign identifies the driver as a “troop surgeon on official medical business.”

Kuntzman checks this sign and also discovers that it repeatedly lists fines for traffic violations.

He pulls up a record on his iPhone and zeroes in on the well-worn songs.

“This guy turned out to be a surgeon, he can’t even perform surgery on a damn license plate,” Kuntzman explains.

Just a few hours later, Kuntzman’s videos are shared on his Twitter profile, where he has more than 18,000 followers, and have been viewed thousands of times.

He says he has now uploaded nearly 250 videos exploding mocking license plate laws.

$100 million annual cost

Camera evasion in the New York Metropolitan Area, which spans the five boroughs across parts of New Jersey and Connecticut, is estimated to cost more than $100 million per year.

The Metropolitan Transport Authority loses about $50 million a year, while the losses of the Port Authorities of New York and New Jersey are about $40 million.

Kuntzman said he has noticed more modified license plates since the pandemic. He believes more drivers started engaging in this nefarious practice when New York City’s speed cameras began operating 24 hours a day in August 2022.

Kuntzman, a journalist who previously worked for titles including the New York Post, Daily News and Newsweek, initially began investigating record tampering in 2018, when he became editor of Streetsblog NYC.

But his online campaign to expose offenders began in November 2022 when a lawyer and friend, Adam White, was arrested for trying to fix a motorist’s license plate.

White attempted to correct the license plate of a Chevy SUV in Brooklyn, with a piece of plastic covering one of the numbers.

The driver, who was still in the vehicle, called police and officers showed up and arrested White. He was charged with criminal mischief, but the case was later dismissed.

Gershman later wrote the song “Criminal Mischief” under the band name Jimmy and the Jaywalkers – a Bob Dylan-inspired song that appears in many of his videos.

Kuntzman estimates that more than half of the offenders he catches are police officers, and ties the behavior to the signs police and other city officials receive.

Officers are issued placards that they can place on the dashboard of their vehicles during official business. The signs allow them to park almost anywhere without being ticketed or towed.

Kuntzman believes most officers start by misusing their signs and then scrape off their license plates to avoid cameras as well.

“Once you’ve established that they’re not going to be held accountable anymore [placard misuse]”A lot of other things are allowed in the officer’s mind: covering your plate to avoid getting a ticket, crossing off a number to avoid being caught by a red light camera,” he said.

“If the police are doing this, it’s the very people who shouldn’t be doing this because they’re the ones who are supposed to be enforcing things like speed limits.”

Kuntzman typically watches for trespassers as he cycles from his home in Brooklyn to his office in downtown Manhattan.

‘What I think I bring to the table, and I’m proud of it, is that I have a very good eye for this kind of thing, because I’ve been looking at license plates for over two years now, literally every license plate I cycle past, and I see things now that people can’t believe I saw.’

Perhaps surprisingly, Kuntzman said it is “very rare” to be accosted by a vehicle owner while correcting their fault plates.

But his attempts to expose license plate scandals are not always met with positive reactions on Twitter/X, where he shares selfie images of his exploits.

Negative comments range from small jokes like “male Karen” to other comments threatening violence against him.

But he is not alarmed. Kuntzman plans to continue the campaign.

“I would argue loudly that I should get a mayoral proclamation for the work I’ve done,” he notes, perhaps only half-jokingly.

An NYPD spokesperson said: “All vehicles on the streets of New York are subject to the laws that govern the road, including NYPD employee vehicles. Commanding officers are responsible for monitoring officer vehicles parked near a district or department facility to ensure they comply with both public law and department policy.”