E-ZPass, UPS, and Newark AirportRisks Digest 23.01

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Date: Mon,  3 Nov 2003 10:16:03 -0400
From: Susan Landau <susan.landau () sun com>
Subject: E-ZPass, UPS, and Newark Airport

  [This appeared in the Metropolitan Diary section of *The New York Times*,
  3 Nov 2003.  It is yet another example of what can happen when perfectly
  plausible actions are combined in unexpected ways.  Fortunately this one
  is humurous.  Susan Landau]

Dear Diary:

After moving to Nashville from New York recently, it occurred to me that I
no longer had a pressing use for my E-ZPass. Following the E-ZPass
instructions, I filled out a few forms and dropped my pass off at United
Parcel Service, destination Staten Island service center.

Two weeks passed, and I received my normal E-ZPass e-mail statement. I
entered my account and, lo and behold, my recently surrendered pass had been
used by someone to go from Newark Airport to Exit 18 on the New Jersey
Turnpike.

I was incensed.

I immediately called E-ZPass and informed them that someone had stolen my
pass. I explained that I had mailed the pass and that now someone was
running up and down the turnpike using it.

Very calmly, the E-ZPass representative said, "Sir, your E-ZPass was not
stolen, it is in the UPS truck, and every time that truck goes through an
E-Z Pass toll booth, it is going to register another toll."

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