New York Post
Nearly blind NY grandmother gets hundreds of tickets in ‘Star Trek’ license plate, DMV fiasco
By David Propper
Published Dec. 15, 2024, 11:34 p.m. ET
Resistance can be futile when dealing with New York’s Department of Motor Vehicles.
A nearly blind Long Island retiree who hasn’t driven in four years had been crushed with a mountain of tickets across the country — including from the Big Apple — all because of a Star Trek-theme vanity plate she used to have, according to reports.
Huntington resident Beda Koorey, 76, gave up her old license plate, NCC 1701 — the designation of the famous starship Enterprise in the renowned sci-fi series — at the start of 2020 as her eyesight was waning.
But the vanity plate, which was picked by her ex-husband, has caused endless agita due to motorists purchasing the same fake novelty plates for their cars which then get caught in driving infractions, News 12 reported.
Those tickets are then mistakenly sent to Koorey, leaving her desperate for a solution.
“The mailman comes. I go, ‘Here comes another ticket,'” she told the station earlier this month.
“And I’m getting phone calls from all over the country.”
She’s received tickets from as far as Montreal, Canada, even though she’s never even been to the country.
The grandmother’s also been hit with $16,500 in fines from New York City for driving infractions she didn’t commit.
“I can’t even sleep. All I see are tickets with cars with my plates on them,” Koorey told News 12. “This is making me sick every single day.”
“I’m blaming the Department of Motor Vehicles because when these people are inputting those plates, it’s coming back to me,” she added.
The fake Star Trek vanity plates can easily be bought on e-commerce sites like Amazon and replace real plates.
But the nightmare might soon be over after a lawyer volunteered to help the elderly woman.
Kenneth Mollins told CBS 2 that Koorey was still attached to the Star Trek plates even though the state Department of Motor Vehicles claimed her name and address were removed.
After reaching out to top officials at the state agency, Mollins told Koorey on Thursday the issue, despite its tendency to cling on, should now be fixed.
The city Department of Finance, which collects parking and red-light camera ticket fines, vowed to work with Koorey to toss the 194 Big Apple tickets against the Long Islander.
Mollins meanwhile is working to get the hundreds of tickets issued in 23 other states tossed as well.
“Now I’m going to make a hole in the yard and bury these documents, these hundreds of tickets,” Koorey told CBS 2.
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