Man wears monkey mask for red light cameras – Texans for Toll-free Highways

Link to article here.

Don’t think someone won’t try this to avoid paying tolls. too.

Man Dons Mask for Speed-Camera Photos
AOL.com
September 8, 2009

(Sept. 8) – An Arizona man who has been served 37 speeding tickets in the mail is refusing to pay them because he says the pictures captured by the state’s photo-enforcement cameras don’t show that it’s him driving, AZcentral.com reported Tuesday.

The photos on the tickets all show the driver wearing a monkey mask.

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Driver dons monkey mask in speeding camera photo.

Arizona Department of Public Safety

This image captured by a speed camera in Phoenix shows a driver wearing a monkey mask. While the car belongs to Dave Vontesmar, he claims it’s not him.
“Not one of them there is a picture where you can identify the driver,” said Dave Vontesmar, a flight attendant who works at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. “The ball’s in their court. I sent back all these ones I got with a copy of my driver’s license and said, ‘It’s not me. I’m not paying them.’ “

But police disagree and say they’ve been watching him closely.

“We watched him four different times put the monkey mask on and put the giraffe-style mask on,” Officer Dave Porter told AZcentral.com. “Based on surveillance, we were positive that Vontesmar was the driver.”

Still, Vontesmar is confident that he won’t have to pay the fines, which could exceed $6,500.

“It’s obviously a revenue grab,” he said of the new photo-enforcement program. “They’re required by law to ID the driver of the vehicle. If they can’t identify the driver or the vehicle by the picture, what are they doing to identify the driver?”

Arizona police are having a hard time getting a lot of speeders to pay tickets they receive in the mail. Read more about that on AZcentral.com