Trekkie license plate puzzler: Tickets from Chicago connected to grandmother in New York who has no car and doesn't drive
In October 2024, automated enforcement cameras in Chicago caught a dark-colored Nissan Sentra with New York Plate NCC1701 speeding along Kedzie Avenue through Marquette Park and running a red light at 79th and Halsted streets in Auburn Gresham.
The plates came back to a woman who lives in Long Island, New York. The only problem is that woman doesn't drive any longer and has not owned a car registered to that license plate since 2020.
The Trekkie connection
The husband of 76-year-old Beda Koorey loved "Star Trek." Being a Trekkie, naturally, his license plate reflected that fandom.
"He got those plates in, if I can remember, It was like in 1978," Koorey said.
NCC1701 is the number on the original USS Enterprise back when Captain Kirk was steering that ship.
Eventually, Mr. Koorey got a new car and new plates — and NCC1701 ended up on cars she drove.
But. the widowed Koorey, whose sight is now failing, hasn't had her hands on a steering wheel for five years. She sold her last car and turned those New York NCC1701 plates back into the state.
She has documents detailing those plates were surrendered to the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles in April 2020 and destroyed.
The ticket connection
Soon after putting the Trekkie plate to rest, Koorey got anything but rest. Hundreds of tickets started racing into her mailbox.
"I've gone through a horror show with this," Koorey said.
Since those license plates were destroyed, she has received hundreds of tickets in the mail.
"I had red light pictures and speeding and parking and towing in Virginia Beach; Florida; Maryland; Baltimore; Washington, D.C. — all over the country."
Those violations have come in from more than 20 states, in fact. And, it's not just tickets.
"In Ohio, the police officer called me looking for me, my cars," Koorey said. "I had to explain… because the car was involved in a robbery."
Koorey said the officer in Ohio stopped looking into her after they spoke, realizing it was a mistake. In other states, it took more work.
"In Florida, they wouldn't even accept the documentation from the Department of Motor Vehicles in New York, including the certified letter," Koorey said. "So that's why I had to eventually write to the Attorney General."
In Chicago, Koorey was also getting nowhere — even after sending the New York documented proof she sold her car and the plates were destroyed in 2020.
She got three $100 tickets incurred in October 2024, which by March 2025 had turned into a $600 collection notice.
Koorey's attorney, Kenneth Mollins, got to work.
"I personally ran the plate through the New York DMV, and there it was. She came up as the last owner of the plate," Mollins said. "So at that point, I said I can't let this go on."
Mollins volunteered his time after hearing her story on New York television stations, including WCBS-TV, CBS New York.
"I wrote to the DMV and told them that we were going to consider bringing litigation," he said. "Heard back from their general counsel, who I'm told doesn't really call anybody. And it took him a day or two and it was done."
Mollins was able to get Koorey's name separated from the NCC1701 New York plate in the DMV system.
Eventually, many of the tickets also got dismissed. But Mollins said he hit a roadblock.
"But not in the great state of Illinois," he said. "In Chicago… I could get nobody who gave a darn."
CBS News Chicago sent the same documentation to the Chicago Department of Finance, and within days, Koorey's tickets had disappeared.
Why all the wrongful tickets?
Two factors played a role in Beda Koorey receiving so many wrong tickets from all across the country, including Chicago.
First, when a ticketing authority like Chicago's Department of Finance or a state toll road snaps a photo of the license plate on the vehicle for the violation and runs the plate, the New York NCC1701 comes back to Koorey.
However, Koorey never owned a Nissan Sentra like the vehicle seen in the Chicago ticket images.
In New York — and across the country — a variety of vehicles with that same New York plate were photographed breaking traffic laws.
"This has stressed me out for five years to the point where I've ignored medication, I've ignored doctor appointments," said Koorey. "I've ignored so many things that I had to be focused on, but I couldn't be focused on it because I couldn't sleep."
Koorey's ticket trouble may be wrapped up — but an issue remains that could allow this to happen to anyone anywhere.
Just go online. Through Amazon, for example, various sellers advertise license plates you can customize and buy for any state.
Paul Steier, director of vehicle programs for the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA), said license plate readers are reading characters on a plate and the name of the state, but can't do the most important thing.
"Those readers aren't necessarily detecting the authenticity of the plate," he said.
And that has an even bigger impact than people like Koorey receiving wrongful tickets.
"That's why your tolling industry… they'll tell you the millions and millions of dollars they lose annually because they cannot track down the correct and rightful owner of that vehicle that [got] those tolls," Steier said.
What's the solution?
It's easy to buy a copy of a real plate. What's harder is to quantify how big of a problem like Koorey's is in any particular state or nationwide.
But Steier has a suggestion for how to curtail the problem, however it large it is.
"We've encouraged our members, our state members or Canadian members to get to work with our legislators to prohibit the allowance of a plate to be sold that replicates, that mirrors or counterfeits an exact plate that they issue," he said.
The attorneys general of New York and Illinois say they are "monitoring" the issue.
