PROVIDENCE, RI — A Rhode Island man who lost his front license plate thought it had simply shaken loose, then decided the car looked cleaner without it and never reported it missing. Two years later, a Massachusetts toll bill landed in his inbox and showed him the plate had ended up somewhere else.
Jay, who posts as @.jaydave, explained the situation in a video that has drawn more than 361,200 views. His caption summed up the mood: “Lowkey screwed.” What started as a minor inconvenience turned into a reminder that license plates can create real problems long after they disappear.
How a missing plate turned into a Massachusetts toll charge
Jay said he first noticed one of his plates was gone about two years ago and assumed it had fallen off while driving. Instead of treating it as a possible theft, he shrugged it off and kept driving with only one plate. He later said he even liked how the car looked without the front tag.
The problem surfaced when EZ-Pass Massachusetts sent him a bill for a toll he says he never drove through. Jay said he does not live in Massachusetts and checked his own schedule before pushing back. “I made sure I was at work during the time that it was committed,” he said. The charge pointed to an event that clearly did not match his own movements.
The plate had been photographed on a Ford F-150
Getting help was not simple, Jay said, because he had to work through automated phone systems before reaching a web chat. Once he connected with an agent, he was told the plate had been photographed on a Ford F-150. Jay said he has never owned that truck and does not plan to.
That detail made the stakes clearer. Someone else now had a plate that could be tied back to him, and he had never filed a missing-plate report. Jay said that if the plate were used in a crime, the paper trail would still point in his direction first. The toll notice was annoying, but the larger concern was identity attached to the wrong vehicle.
Why Massachusetts wanted a police report before dropping the bill
Massachusetts law puts the responsibility for tolls, fees, fines and penalties on the registered owner of the vehicle. The state’s rules do allow an owner to challenge a charge, but only if the vehicle had been reported stolen to law enforcement in a timely manner and was still stolen when the toll was incurred.
Jay did not have that kind of documentation. He said he appealed the EZ-Pass charge, but the request was denied because the plate was still registered to him. In a follow-up, he said customer service told him the only way to prove it was not him was to bring a police report. Without that, the dispute went nowhere.
Rhode Island law also treats a missing plate as a police matter
The issue was not limited to Massachusetts. Rhode Island’s DMV also requires a police report or affidavit when a driver replaces a missing plate. The process includes surrendering the remaining plate and getting new ones issued. In other words, the state expects drivers to treat a vanished plate as something official, not just cosmetic damage.
Driving with only one plate for two years created another problem. Rhode Island law requires two plates, one attached in the front and the other in the rear. Jay’s decision to keep going without the front plate may have seemed harmless at the time, but it left him exposed once another state linked that plate to toll activity.
Commenters shared their own costly license plate problems
People watching the video quickly pointed out what Jay should have done. “Why wouldn’t you report this? Isn’t this common sense?” one commenter asked. Jay replied, “Didn’t know I had to.” Another wrote, “You gotta call the police bro,” while one person said plainly, “License plates don’t just ‘fall off.’”
Some replies turned the story into a warning from experience. One commenter said not reporting a missing plate led to about $900 in tolls and nearly caused a license suspension. Another Rhode Island driver said a stolen plate was later used for speeding tickets in Providence. Jay said he is now handling the matter the way he should have in 2024.
What Jay says he is doing now
Jay said he has now started the process he should have begun when the plate first disappeared. Asked whether he had called the police, he answered, “I’m on it now.” That step matters because both Massachusetts and Rhode Island put weight on a police record when a plate is missing or stolen.
The situation also shows how one forgotten report can turn into a larger headache later. A plate linked to the wrong driver can trigger toll charges, disputes, and possible problems if it turns up in another incident. For Jay, the lesson came two years late, after a toll notice made clear the missing tag had never just vanished into nothing.
Local news that matters, from Dulaney Griffin.
