NTTA bills couple $1K for tolls on cars they don’t own

“Does this look like a used car lot?” Anne Smith asked as she prepared coffee in the kitchen of her North Richland Hills home. The home of Anne and her husband Dale — former lead pastor of Colleyville Presbyterian Church — is not a used car lot, but the charges from the North Texas Tollway Authority would indicate it is. Since October of 2022, the Smiths have received bills for 11 vehicles they don’t own, totaling $1,065. The Smiths said when they told NTTA about the billing error, the agency said they had to prove they didn’t own the cars. NTTA is a governmental organization that operates toll roads in North Texas. Anne said the couple lost sleep over the stress. Being retired, they weren’t in a position to spend money on a lawyer, she said. So they reached out to the Star-Telegram after their attempts to convince NTTA failed, including getting the police involved. The police tracked the cars to an Arlington dealership, which buys vehicles from a man also named Dale Smith.

But the issue was not resolved until NTTA received a call and an email from the Star-Telegram on Thursday, asking for an interview. That evening NTTA notified the couple that their debt was voided. In a statement on Friday, NTTA said it “dug” into the case after it received a call from the Star-Telegram and discovered the plates were associated with someone else. Agents should have looked deeper into the original call made by Anne in 2022, but they believed they had the correct address, the spokesperson wrote. NTTA said its records show the Smiths called customer service three times. While their 17-month dispute with NTTA appears to be over, Anne said she was not pleased with the agency’s handling of their case. “You just think people are going to be honest and are going to respond appropriately,” she said. “They just don’t care.” Dale described the requirement of proving they didn’t own the vehicles as “proving a negative.” The couple attempted to do so anyway. In January 2023 the Smiths filed a report with the North Richland Hills police department. The police report, reviewed by the Star-Telegram, shows that a detective traced the plate numbers on the Smith’s bills to temporary tags from a used car dealership in Arlington.