Help Me Hank: New Hampshire tokens

You tell yourself it’s worth it to battle the traffic, because on the other side there are summertime beaches and wintertime skiing.

The dreaded Hampton tollbooths, the scourge of north-bound drivers, the obstacle between you and the fun.

But Poppy Mastrovita of Duxbury had a solution. Last summer she bought up rolls and rolls of turnpike tokens, $80 worth, and planned to use them as Christmas stocking stuffers.

Poppy Mastrovita
"It hopefully saves you time because you have the exact amount."

Summer passed and Fall and Poppy made a December drive up north. That’s when she saw the sign taped up to the tollbooth. It said that tokens would not be accepted as of January 1st. Surprise! Her stash would be useless.

Poppy Mastrovita
"I certainly would not have purchased them had there been any indication that they would have such a short shelf life."

It seemed like Poppy was stuck with rolls of worthless metal and when she called officials in New Hampshire, they told her no refunds.

Poppy Mastrovita
"There’s nothing I really can do about it."

Then she thought maybe there was. She sat down and wrote letters to every consumer advocate she could think of.

Poppy Mastrovita
"And Hank called back."

We in turn called New Hampshire's Department of Transportation.

They told us before the state dumped tokens and switched to EZ Pass in 2006, they repeatedly warned New Hampshire drivers to use theirs up.

Hank Phillippi Ryan
"I understand that people in New Hampshire knew, but people in Massachusetts apparently didn’t know."

But here’s the scoop. New Hampshire officials admit they're getting complaints from out of staters, angry drivers with too many obsolete tokens.

Hank Phillippi Ryan
"So what are the possibilities of what could happen?"

They revealed there could be token reimbursements. No decisions yet, but some paybacks could happen.

So as Poppy waits for big wigs to decide, she's now using her tokens the only way she can think of.

Poppy Mastrovita
"I'm using it as a door stop."

Right now, there’s no final word on token refunds or exchanges. We'll keep you posted.

(Copyright (c) 2006 Sunbeam Television Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)