Attention adulterers: You may be cruising for a bruising if you are cheating on your loved one and own an E-ZPass.
Who knew a little piece of plastic could cause so much trouble?
It seems the E-ZPass (a type of electronic toll collection device) is emerging as a powerful means of proving infidelity. The reason: the contraception, that’s no bigger than the common garage door opener, allows suspicious spouses to check out where their cheating mates have been.
One New York divorce attorney who has used E-ZPass records several times in court says this about the device:
“E-ZPass is an E-ZPass to go directly to divorce court, because it’s an easy way to show you took the off-ramp to adultery.”
For those unfamiliar with the E-ZPass, the device is mounted inside a vehicle’s windshield behind the rearview mirror. It works by communicating with antennas at toll plazas and automatically deducting money from a driver’s prepaid account. Many of my friends living in the Chicagoland area swear by them since the device (it’s called I-Pass in Illinois) eliminates the need to stop at tollways.
So why are these convenient devices being blamed for inconveniencing those who stray? According to divorce attorneys, E-ZPass records can help prove infidelities. For example, if your husband was being unfaithful and claimed he was at a business meeting in Pennsylvania but E-ZPass records show he went to New Jersey that night that information can be used against him in court and destroy his credibility.
More than a dozen states in the Northeast and Midwest use the EZ or I-PASS system and agencies in seven states report that they have provided electronic toll information in response to court orders in criminal and civil cases, including divorces.
In states such as New Jersey and Pennsylvania, highway authorities release E-ZPass records only in criminal cases. Meanwhile, managers with the Illinois Tollway, which regularly hands over records, say they received more than 30 such subpoenas in the first half of this year alone, with about half coming from civil cases, including divorces. In New Jersey the Turnpike Authority there said it turns down about 30 subpoenas in civil cases every year, about half of them being divorces.
The moral of this story: Travelers who want to protect their privacy shouldn’t use electronic toll systems.
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