A vigilante patrols the streets of New York, exposing motorists with illegal license plates and the very sneaky tricks they use to hide their true identities.
Gersh Kuntzman, 58, bikes through the Big Apple, armed with a camera to record the culprits and a Sharpie and screwdriver to fix their plates.
But completely cleaning the streets is an almost impossible task. Corrupted license plates are everywhere – and, according to Kuntzman, the main culprits are the cops.
Scrofflaws’ tactics range from bending plates to cover license numbers to intentionally scraping off numbers and letters. Some even use fake magnetic sheets or reflective covers to hide their plates.
This practice helps culprits avoid tolls, speed cameras and red light cameras. Criminals can also use it to hide crimes, including vehicle theft.
In New York, it is estimated that it would cost up to $100 million a year. But license plate tampering is a nationwide problem.
Gersh Kuntzman records himself exposing a battered license plate in New York
Kuntzman takes a marker to scuffed license plates and redraws the covered numbers
Some motorists even use fake magnetic sheets like the ones in the photos to cover their plates.
In a meeting with Kuntzman on Thursday, DailyMail.com witnessed his ability to spot culprits. And it took a few minutes to find two separate vehicles whose plates allegedly violated New York traffic laws.
We met Kuntzman at 3 p.m. outside his office in downtown Manhattan and picked up Citibikes for a tour of the “hotspots.”
He explained that concealed license plates are commonplace around City Hall and in New York’s courts, including the criminal court where Donald Trump is currently on trial.
And that’s partly because police and court personnel are believed to be among the worst offenders, Kuntzman said.
The first case on our trip took place in a row of cars parked in Federal Plaza, near the New York County Supreme Court.
But he wasn’t a cop. The scratched plates indicated that the Ford Explored belonged to a member of the media, identifiable by the letters “NYP.”
Kuntzman took out his phone and Sharpie and started filming.
“Let’s fix this one, let’s make it look right,” he said, redrawing the plate to make its numbers and letters clearly visible.
It also manages the plate number through a website that checks for plate-related fines. The check reveals numerous traffic violations, the last dating back to April 2023.
“Maybe he’ll start getting those tickets again,” Kuntzman adds once the plate is cleaned.
Just nine minutes later, we were driving along nearby Vesey Street when Kuntzman called out to us, “Let’s stop here, I think I see another one.” »
It shows a silver Mercedes-Benz whose number appears to be obscured on its front plate. A check of the backplate shows that another different number is also obscured.
On the dashboard, a sign identifies its driver as a “military surgeon on official medical mission”.
Kuntzman runs this plate and also discovers that she has been hit with fines several times for traffic violations.
He hits a record on his iPhone and takes the Sharpie to the scuffed numbers.
“This guy turned out to be a surgeon, he can’t even operate on a damn license plate,” Kuntzman says.
Hours later, Kuntzman’s videos were shared on his Twitter profile, where he has more than 18,000 followers and have been viewed thousands of times.
He says he has now uploaded nearly 250 videos blasting license plate violations.
COST OF $100 PER YEAR
Circumventing cameras in the New York metropolitan area, which spans five boroughs spread across parts of New Jersey and Connecticut, is estimated to cost more than $100 million a year.
The Metropolitan Transport Authority loses about $50 million a year, while the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s losses total about $40 million.
Kuntzman said he has noticed more weathered patches since the pandemic. He believes more motorists began engaging in this harmful practice when New York City’s speed cameras began operating 24 hours a day in August 2022.
Kuntzman, a journalist who has worked for titles including the New York Post, the Daily News and Newsweek, became interested in plate tampering in 2018, when he became editor-in-chief of Streetsblog NYC.
But his online campaign to expose wrongdoers took off in November 2022 when a lawyer and friend, Adam White, was arrested for trying to fix a motorist’s license plate.
White tried to fix the plate of a Chevrolet SUV in Brooklyn that had a piece of plastic covering one of its digits.
The driver, who was still in the vehicle, called the cops and officers showed up and arrested White. He was charged with criminal mischief, but the case was later dropped.
Gershman then wrote the song “Criminal Mischief” under the band name Jimmy and the Jaywalkers – a Bob Dylan-inspired track that appears in several of his videos.
Kuntzman believes more than half of the culprits are police officers or work for other city agencies
Gersh Kuntzman films himself fixing the license plate of a Mercedes in downtown Manhattan
Kuntzman estimates that more than half of the offenders he arrests are police officers and links their behavior to the signs police and other city officials receive.
Officers are provided with signs that they can place on the dashboard of their vehicle while on official business. The signs allow them to park virtually anywhere without a ticket or towing.
Kuntzman thinks most cops start by overusing their signs, then scuff their plates to avoid the cameras as well.
“Once you establish that they’re not going to be held responsible for (misuse of a sign), a lot of other things in the officer’s mind become permissible: covering their plate to avoid getting a ticket for speeding, scratch a number to avoid being caught by a police officer on a red light camera,” he said.
“When cops do it, they’re exactly the ones who shouldn’t be doing it because they’re the ones who are supposed to be enforcing things like speed limits.”
Kuntzman usually watches offenders as he bikes from his home in Brooklyn to his office in downtown Manhattan.
“What I think I bring to the table, and I’m proud of it, is that I have a very good eye for this sort of thing, because I’ve been looking at license plates for over two years now, literally glancing at every license plate I cycle past, and I spot things now that people can’t believe I spotted.
Perhaps surprisingly, Kuntzman said it was “very rare” to be approached by a vehicle owner while correcting their license plates.
But his efforts to expose license plate violations don’t always receive a positive response on Twitter/X, where he shares selfies of his exploits.
Negative responses range from petty taunts like “male Karen” to others threatening violence against him.
But he is not disturbed. Kuntzman plans to continue the campaign.
“I would argue vehemently that I should get a proclamation from the mayor for the work I have done,” he remarks, perhaps half-jokingly.
An NYPD spokesperson said: “All vehicles operating on New York streets are subject to traffic laws, including vehicles owned by NYPD employees. Commanders are responsible for monitoring officer vehicles parked near a police station or department facility to ensure they are following both public laws and department policy.
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