John Johnson

Newser

How would a cabbie manage to cross the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge in New York City more than 3,000 times without paying a dime in tolls? Pretty easily, it turns out.

Police say Rodolfo Sanchez figured out that if he tailgated the law-abiding, toll-paying car ahead of him closely enough, he could sneak though before the barrier came back down, reports the New York Times.

Authorities allege that Sanchez did exactly that on every trip for nearly two years and saved himself more than $28,000 in tolls.

Now, however, the 69-year-old faces grand larceny charges and seven years in prison if convicted, reports CBS New York.

Authorities finally caught on to the scheme when they noticed that a particular EZ Pass with no money in its account crossed the bridge over and over and over for free. It wasn't registered to Sanchez—he may have used it as a decoy—but investigators were able to use the device's tracking data to crack the case.

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