Toll collectors held up in Meadowlands NJ - Sopranos country

Toll collectors at interchanges 16E and 15X of the New Jersey Turnpike were robbed at gunpoint before dawn Sunday. The first holdup was at the toll plaza where HBO's Tony Soprano is seen in the standard opening scenes of the Sopranos crime series grabbing a ticket from a ticket dispensing machine after driving from Manhattan through the Lincoln Tunnel - no E-ZPass for mobsters!

16E is a 22 lane mainline toll plaza located right at the split between the eastern leg of the Turnpike heading to the George Washington bridge and NJ495, the spur east connecting to the helix or spiral that takes traffic down into the Lincoln Tunnel.

16E is on a weekly basis one of the busiest toll points on the New Jersey Turnpike.

But it isn't busy at 5:40 on a Sunday morning.

The holdup men, their faces covered with bandannas and sunglasses were apparently driving three cars - a white Nissan, a dark colored Jeep, and a Mercedes.

The Mercedes was stolen from its owner and driven off about an hour earlier, police say.

After hitting 16E the robbers drove south down the Turnpike to the next exit, 15X less than 2 miles, 3km away where they hit the 15X ramp toll plaza.

see map at bottom of page

No one has said how much money they got, but it is unlikely to have been more than $300 or $400.

15X is an 8 lane toll plaza built just a few years ago to access a parking lot for Amtrak and NJ Transit train passengers using the Secaucus Junction train station. It was also designed to serve "transit-oriented developments" in the Meadowlands that never developed.

Alongside the sluggish Hackensack River 15X is the least used toll plaza on the Turnpike.

Video of the robberies

The Turnpike Authority has good video of both robberies.

In the past 30 years there have been about ten armed holdups of toll collectors on the Turnpike.

Almost all the gun-toting thieves were caught and jailed.

TOLLROADSnews 2009-08-30