Man Charging People To Wait In Line At Eatontown MVC

EATONTOWN, NJ — Last week, Patch reported how a man collapsed while waiting in a two-plus hour line at the Motor Vehicle Commission in Eatontown. He fell and hit his head and had to be taken away in an ambulance.

And now this week it has been revealed that multiple people across the state are turning the MVC's notoriously long lines into a business opportunity: By getting paid to wait in line. A woman tweeted to the MVC (@NJ_MVC) and said a man is charging people $100 to wait in line at the Eatontown MVC for them.

"This is disgusting," she wrote. "Haven’t been able to get my Real ID because scum like this are taking up spots to make money. Make everything virtual."

In North Jersey, a Morris County teen, Anthony Salgado, 19, said he gets paid $200 to wait in line for people.

"I charge 200 dollars to go sit in line for someone," Salgado told CBS News. "They just meet me a little before it opens and then I hand them the ticket after they pay me. I never imagined that I would have gotten as many clients as I did. It's honestly people who have a little extra money to burn and they don't want to sit on line for five hours just to go to the DMV for 20 minutes."

The teen said he started doing this about a month ago, in August, after he saw the long MVC lines in New Jersey. He posted ads on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace and other sites, advertising his services, and within hours he started getting replies.

People are reporting on Twitter that it's happening at the Jersey City MVC, too.

A spokesman for the MVC told Patch they are aware this is happening, but unable to do anything about it.

"The MVC is aware that a few individuals are charging others to hold a spot in line and strongly discourages the practice," said New Jersey MVC spokesman William Connolly. "However, the MVC has no law enforcement authority, nor do we propose to remove people from lines by force. It is not clear that charging others to hold a spot in line is illegal."

Read more at CBS2 New York.

Related: Man Collapses Waiting In Line At Eatontown MVC (Sept. 21)