Lifestyle

Gretchen, 72, Sold Her Husband’s Classic Cars. Then the Toll Bills Kept Coming: “We Only Go by What Is Registered”

By Mike Harper · November 14, 2026

Gretchen Cash thought selling her husband’s car collection would be a sensible way to save money. Instead, the Farmers Branch, Texas, grandmother ended up paying for strangers to drive on the tollway.

Her story aired on CBS 11 in Dallas-Fort Worth in November 2016, in a report by J.D. Miles. The station said Cash, then 72, had lost her husband the year before. He collected classic cars, and she sold some of them on eBay.

Cash told the station she was always “careful to call the toll tag company as soon as I sold a car.” She did not expect to hear about those cars again.

Then the mail started. The report opens with Cash reading a ZipCash toll bill marked as a first notice of nonpayment, one of several that arrived that week for tolls she did not run up. According to CBS 11, the North Texas Tollway Authority sent notices saying it would not accept copies of her bills of sale.

She recalled what she was told when she pushed back. “We only go by what is registered with the Department of Motor Vehicles,” she said, repeating the tollway’s answer.

The tollway gave CBS 11 its reasons. The NTTA said bills of sale could be forged, and that “we cannot accept a handwritten bill of sale as a legal document.” It said it relies on a vehicle transfer notice filed with the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles as proper documentation.

Cash told the station she had no way of reaching some of the people who bought the cars. At the time of the report, the unpaid tolls added up to only about 50 dollars, CBS 11 said. Her worry was that the bills kept coming.

Her case shows a common trap in private car sales, and it can land hard on a surviving spouse selling a collection.

The Texas Department of Motor Vehicles spells out the risk on its Buying or Selling a Vehicle page. Vehicles must be titled in the buyer’s name within 30 days of the sale, and the agency warns that failing to transfer a vehicle properly “could result in the seller being held responsible for tickets, toll violations or even crimes committed with the vehicle.”

The fix it recommends is a Vehicle Transfer Notification. When a seller files one within 30 days of the sale, the TxDMV says, the seller “cannot be held responsible for parking tickets and toll violations” committed by the buyer. If bills still arrive after that, the agency says sellers can ask for a confirmation email or request a record (Form VTR-275) showing the month and year the vehicle was transferred.

An NTTA information sheet posted by Denton County lists the documents the tollway will take to clear a former owner’s name, including a transfer notification receipt from the DMV, a dealer’s bill of sale, a death certificate and a police report. It also says the tollway cannot accept a handwritten bill of sale, “even if it’s notarized.”

For anyone selling a car, especially from a loved one’s estate, the steps are simple. File your state’s transfer notice the same day you hand over the keys. Keep the buyer’s name, contact information, the sale date and the VIN. The TxDMV also suggests going with the buyer to the county tax office so the title application gets filed. Other states have their own versions of the notice, so check your state motor vehicle agency’s website before you sell.

This article is for general information and is not financial or legal advice. Gretchen Cash’s story and quotes are from CBS 11 News (CBS Texas) reporting by J.D. Miles in 2016; rules are as stated by the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles and the North Texas Tollway Authority. This article was produced with the assistance of AI and fact-checked against the sources cited by LightWave Reports.