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Unpaid Tolls Lead To Bill For $17,000

Mom Claims Her Son Never Got Notices For 242 Unpaid Tolls, Leading to $70 Per Toll Fine

(CBS) A warning Tuesday night for any of you out there who blow through highway toll plazas: it can cost you, and we mean big time.

As CBS 2's Mai Martinez reports, one southwest suburban mother recently found out her son owed more than $17,000 because of toll violations.

As Cindy Leeper looked over notes she's been compiling for the past couple of weeks, she still couldn't believe her son, Greg Wilson, owes the state of Illinois more than $17,000 in fines for toll violations.

Leeper said she only recently learned of the debt when she and her son tried to get him a new driver's license because after he was severely injured in a car accident, he no longer resembles the photo on his old license.

"They said his license is suspended for tolls, and I said tolls?"

After calling a couple of numbers, this is what Leeper learned from a collection agency handling her son's case from a collection agency: "Your total balance, currently due is $17,065.50. This may not reflect all moneys owed."

Leeper said her son admits to blowing a few tolls, but he claims he never received any notices about the violations.

A spokeswoman for the Illinois Tollway, however, said that at least 50 notices were sent to Greg Wilson.

According to the spokeswoman, the fine is a result of 242 individual tolls which were not paid by Wilson.

Those totaled just $100.50, but because Wilson did not pay the fines in time, a $20-per toll fine was added, equaling an additional $4,840.00

After another payment deadline passed, an additional $50 per toll fine was added pushing the total up another $12,100.00. A $25 Illinois Secretary of State fee was also added for a grand total of $17,065.50.

Leeper calls that amount outrageous. "I understand people shouldn't blow tolls. They shouldn't have parking tickets. They shouldn't have anything. My concern is $17,000 is more than what most people in prison get," Leeper said.

Leeper said that, as outrageous as the fine is, she plans to make her son pay for what he did. She just fears it could take him the rest of his life since he's now disabled.

We tried to contact the collection agency about Greg Wilson's case this afternoon, but we were told the person to whom we needed to talk had already left for the day. 

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