Crusader journalist becomes fraud victim after buying a car

Driven Auto of Oak Forest

The unpaid tolls began arriving in the mail less than two weeks after I purchased a new car in June. The first bill was $45. The car responsible for the toll ticket was a blue BMW that had the same license plates that was on my Chrysler Sebring the day I traded it in. A month later, a white Lexus with my old license plate number racked up $315 in unpaid tolls on Illinois’ highways.

With summer on the horizon, I had decided it was time to get a new car and part ways with Old Reliable, the car I had had for 13 years. I bought a Ford Bronco Sport. But after briefly enjoying the fresh scent of my new car, within a short time I realized my vehicular honeymoon was over. I became a victim of fraud. Surveillance cameras captured two luxury vehicles committing toll and red-light violations using my old license plates.

For the next three months, the driver or drivers of a BMW and a Lexus would go on a joyride on the expressways, racking up nearly $700 in unpaid tolls and red-light camera fines. They never paid the price of violations as those bills came to my address month after month after month.

It’s a story where I made the headlines. For months I went back and forth on whether I should write about this frustrating experience, as I don’t like to use my position as a journalist against anyone who has wronged or angered me.

But I thought about other consumers and drivers who may have gone through a similar situation and had nowhere to turn. I also thought about how there are no Illinois laws that require car dealerships to destroy old license plates, at a time when license plate thefts are soaring in the Chicago area.

I also considered the appalling indifferent response and attitude of the dealership; they said they did nothing wrong, yet had neglected to destroy my license plate that still was active and contained all my private information associated with it.

That car dealership is Driven Auto of Oak Forest. Located at 5904 W. 159th St., the facility appears to be a chain of dealerships that includes locations in Waukegan and Burbank, Illinois, which is 25 miles southwest of Chicago.

After doing some research on the Ford Bronco, on June 1, I purchased the vehicle; the transaction took about three hours. When it was done, I hopped in my new car and because I was running late, I accepted the dealership’s promise that the license plates would be mailed to my new address.

I had every reason to believe them. I had purchased several new cars in my lifetime and either they were mailed to me, or I left with them. But this time, none of those options were fulfilled.

On July 12, less than two weeks after I purchased my new car, an Illinois tollway bill included the surveillance photo of a BMW with one of my old license plates running through the tollway at Plaza 51 in Aurora at 10:38 p.m. Twenty minutes later, the same car went through another toll at Army Trail Road. In all, the car had 10 tollway violations, including four on June 26. Each unpaid toll violation cost a whopping $9 that included the $1.50 toll, a $3 fee and an additional $5 fee. The total bill in June was $96.20.

In July, the driver of the white Lexus zoomed through 70 tolls that, with extra fees like those on the June bill, brought the month’s bill to $315. In August, there were 50 toll violations. During the three-month joyride, the drivers racked up a total of 130 toll violations for a total of $588.20, including $390 in fees.

And on August 25, the driver of the white Lexus was fined $100 after going through a red light at 400 N. Central Ave. The grand total of all violations was $688.20.

I was not only shocked, but also angry. I was angry at myself for not taking back my old license plates when I left the car dealership with my new car. Then again, I trusted that Driven Auto of Oak Forest would protect me as a customer who had given them his business.

I had to clean up this mess that I didn’t cause. As a customer, I didn’t even get a phone call from the dealership about what they had done to the old license plates. My trust in Driven Auto of Oak Forest was gone, and I regretted buying my vehicle from this business.

Searching for answers, I returned to Driven Auto of Oak Forest for answers. When I explained to the manager what happened with the unpaid bills, he apologized and said my old car had been sold to CarMax with the license plates on it. When I asked why the plates were not removed and destroyed, he said my car probably had not been inspected before it was sent. But regardless of whether cars are inspected, shouldn’t license plates be destroyed to protect the customer by preventing them from being used? The manager then said, “you act as if we did something wrong.”

I asked to which CarMax my Sebring had been sold. The manager wouldn’t tell me. He refused to give me the name of the person who brokered the transaction. I figured the car was sold to the CarMax dealership in neighboring Tinley Park. I called and told them about the situation. The woman on the phone said someone would call me, but no one ever did. Once again, I was taken for a ride.

During my investigation, I learned that license plates are hot items for thieves, especially in Aurora, where the two cars sporting my old license plates racked up toll violations.

An NBC5 Chicago investigation last year reported that innocent drivers disputing tickets based on stolen plates or a stolen vehicle more than doubled, from nearly 1,100 cases in 2019, to more than 2,700 cases in 2021.

That same NBC5 Chicago investigation said suburbs are also experiencing license plates thefts. According to the report, “Aurora Police said license plates thefts increased from 57 reports taken in 2020 to 82 reports in 2021.”

The network’s story tells the experience of Aurora resident Tomas Fernandez, who stored his old license plates in his garage after he sold his car in 2021. The report said Tomas did not know someone broke into his home and stole those plates until red-light and speed camera violations from the city of Chicago started to arrive in his mailbox.

Tomas received 10 violations, with fines totaling more than $1,000. The violations occurred on days when Tomas said he knew he was home, and nowhere near the city. That’s when he discovered his old license plates were stolen right out of his garage. In numerous videos recorded by city cameras last summer, Tomas showed us his plates on a car he says he’s never seen before.

But my old license plates weren’t stolen off my Chrysler or removed from my home. They were in the hands of an irresponsible car dealership that left them open for thieves to take.

Some new car owners I spoke to never heard of a car dealership not destroying or returning license plates to customers. Then again, how many customers report such incidents and what they can do about it should it happen to them.

Amid my frustration, I searched for any Illinois laws that require car dealerships to destroy old license plates from cars traded in by consumers. Such a law, I thought, won’t prevent license plate thefts, but it would at least do something to protect consumers and hold car dealerships accountable for leaving customers like me at risk of theft and numerous unpaid toll violations.

For three weeks, I called Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office and the Illinois Secretary of State’s office. Neither office could find any such law.In 2019, after years of license plates and car thefts, Oklahoma passed a law that says, “when a vehicle is purchased by a dealer, if the seller has left their license plate on the vehicle, it should be removed. If it is an Oklahoma license plate, it should be returned to the owner, if possible. If not, it should be turned in to a Tag Agent or the OTC (Oklahoma Tax Commission). If it is an out of state or a tribal license plate, it should be destroyed.

I reached out to Curtis Tarver II, my Illinois State Representative for the 25th District. After hearing my story, Tarver promised to sponsor a bill in January that I hope will mimic Oklahoma’s license plates law, though it should also require car dealerships to destroy license plates if they can’t be returned to the consumer.

As for the toll violations and red-light camera fines, I received letters from the Illinois Tollway and Chicago officials who said the fees and fines were waived after I presented a police report and a license plate revocation form that I completed at a driver’s license facility.

Last week, I received in the mail another invoice for the same unpaid tolls and red-light camera fines.