Driver Wears Monkey Mask to Beat Speed Cameras

Valley Monkey Has 37 Unpaid Photo-Enforcement Tickets; Actually He's Just a Dude in a Mask Who Won't Pay the Tickets

By James King

DPS Believes that Dave Vontesmar is the "man behind the mask" in 37 photo radar photos

​If you live in the Valley of the Sun, you probably have a trick or two to avoid getting busted by the speed cameras we all love so much. Some people just know exactly where they are, some buy devices to mask their license plates, and one man, police say, resorted to wearing a mask.

The man, according to police, is Dave Vontesmar.

Police say Vontesmar is the man behind the mask in at least 37 photo-radar tickets, where the driver can be seen wearing a mask to hide his identity.

Vontesmar says it's not him, despite being the owner of the car, but police disagree.

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Dave Vontesmar, seen here, is believed by DPS to be the man behind the mask, responsible for at least 37 photo radar tickets

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"Our officers actually conducted surveillance on him and observed him putting the mask on just prior to the photo-enforcement zone. So obviously, he intended on speeding through the zone and was covering his face intentionally," DPS Lieutenant Steve Harrison tells 92.3 KTAR. "He had two masks. One appeared to be [of] a monkey, the other one appeared to be [of] a giraffe or some type of gazelle design."

Vontesmar tells the Arizona Republic that he is refusing to pay the tickets

"Not one of them there is a picture where you can identify the driver," Vontesmar said. "The ball's in their court. I sent back all these ones I got with a copy of my drivers license, and said, 'It's not me. I'm not paying them.' "

Harrison says this is no laughing matter

Umm, yes it is.There's a guy cruising around town evading police by wearing a monkey mask; if that's not a laughing matter, what is?

Here's an idea; maybe DPS officers should go back to actually pulling people over, like in the old days. It may be difficult to nail this driver by claiming -- through speed-camera pics -- that he must be the man behind the chimp get-up.