A Reno grandmother was shocked to find herself caught in an undercover operation at Burning Man.
Susie Holland, 61, had offered to drive attendees to the annual summer arts event in Black Rock Desert, Nevada, and was set to take a group of six Burners to Playa for the festival last Monday.
Instead, she was approached by Nevada Transportation Authority officers, The Reno Gazette reports.
Officers then searched his Subaru, seized the vehicle and told him he would likely have to pay tens of thousands of dollars in fines.
She wasn’t the only one, Reno resident Michael O’Brien telling KOLO-TV The same thing happened to him later that day. Holland says a total of 18 vehicles were towed that morning during the undercover operation.
Susie Holland, 61, was shocked to find herself caught up in an undercover operation
Holland’s story begins last year, when he rescued a friend and some other Burners who were trapped in the muddy desert.
She said she enjoyed hearing attendees recount their experiences on the ride home and that it gave her a chance to experience Burning Man without actually having to go.
“I’ve never been and I probably never will. It’s not my thing,” Holland said. “But we were talking and they suggested I do it the following year, like just for walks.”
With that in mind, Holland posted an ad on Craigslist three weeks ago offering to provide trips to the Black Rock Desert.
One person responded to the ad via email, she said, and asked how much she was charging.
Holland said he didn’t know the current price of trips to the festival, so he suggested $65 per person.
Her client then offered her $500 including a tip, as long as Holland came back to pick them up, and she accepted, KOLO reports.
Holland had offered to provide transportation to Burning Man, the annual arts festival held in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert.
He said he checked with other Burners, who said he was allowed to leave revelers outside the doors.
“I thought when I picked them up, I’d let them know it’s a Burner mentality: ‘You don’t have to give me $500. I’ll be happy to take you there today. Just pay for the gas, donate whatever,'” he said.
“It wasn’t really about the money, it was about being able to do a little bit of Burn without doing Burn.”
But he received no response from his client for weeks and became suspicious.
“Do you know how that thing gets into your stomach?” he asked the Gazette Journal. “Something just didn’t seem right.”
He then started doing some research and asked the Burners who were going to Playa last Sunday if they could offer transportation to the event.
They assured him it was a normal thing people did, saying drivers were not allowed through the gates of Burning Man without a permit, but they could drop people off at the gate.
“I thought I was doing my due diligence,” the grandmother said. “I even Googled it.”
“The NTA never appeared in any of those investigations,” he insisted. “I didn’t know anyone who even knew it existed.”
When she arrived to pick up the Burners who had hired her, she was shocked to find undercover agents from the Nevada Transportation Authority.
She then arrived at the rear car park of the Grand Sierra Resorts at 6.30am on 26 August, as she and her client had agreed.
But instead of meeting the carefree revelers, Holland was accosted by undercover Nevada Transportation Authority agents who pulled up around her vehicle in black Fords.
“I couldn’t understand what was happening,” she said. “I couldn’t take in what was happening. I’m 61 years old, you know. I’ve never been in a situation like this.”
He said he initially tried to turn around with his car, but was blocked by some unmarked vehicles.
Then, as she tried to drive on, officers honked their Ford horns and three people she described as “tall, bald guys with big license plates on their chests” began searching her car.
“I was literally in shock,” Holland said. “It felt like they were catching a pedophile.”
“This was very intense and they were very aggressive.”
Officers seized his Subaru and told him he faced fines of up to $30,000.
Agents ultimately told Holland he faced fines of up to $30,000 for not having a certification to provide rides for a fee.
His car was then impounded and he was scheduled to appear before the council for the next day in order to get it out.
Holland said she then tried to contact John Routsis, a Burning Man attorney, who promised to help her.
But he said he would help her once she returned from the annual festival, meaning she was left without legal representation at her hearing.
And since she needed her vehicle to get to work, she was willing to accept anything to get it back.
But his was not the only vehicle confiscated that day: Michael O’Brien said he was also involved in the same scheme.
“If there’s no food at home, I’m going to go get money, and that’s how I ended up falling into this scam,” she told KOLO. “I thought I was going to get some money so I could have food at home for my daughter, basically.”
O’Brien also arrived at the rear parking lot of the Grand Sierra Resorts around 9:45 a.m. and was similarly confronted by the undercover officers.
Then, when Holland went to pick up his car at City Auto Towing the next morning, he said the woman at the counter told him that 18 cars had been towed that morning from the undercover operation.
“No one knew it was illegal to offer trips to Burning Man,” he said, as some advertised trips to the festival in a Facebook group.
Some people announced trips to the festival in a Facebook group.
The NTA did not disclose to the Gazette Journal how many people were targeted in the sting operation, how long it took or when it began.
But Teri Williams, a spokeswoman for the agency, said it is illegal for ride-hailing drivers to operate without proper licensing or insurance.
‘As a law enforcement agency, the NTA’s mission is to protect the traveling public, which requires the agency to regulate certified and licensed vendors, as well as take proactive measures to identify and deter unlicensed activities.
“Ultimately, individuals who engage in trading of any kind must be aware of what is required to operate legally… the onus is on the individual to be informed and compliant,” Williams said.
The spokesman added that under the law, the agency is not allowed to simply issue a warning to drivers.
Instead, officers are required to cite a person and impound their vehicle for noncompliance, even if it is only their first offense.
The individual would then take his or her case to a hearing officer, who would decide what the punishment should be, based on factors such as first offense and other hardships.
“NTA takes its public safety mission seriously,” Williams said.
‘The potential harm to both driver and passenger could be life-changing.’
Holland was only required to pay $1,000 in cash to the NTA to release his vehicle, as the hearing officer agreed to waive many of the fees since it was only his first offense.
In the end, Holland was only required to pay $1,000 in cash to the NTA to release his vehicle, as the hearing officer agreed to waive many of the fees since it was only his first violation.
She also paid $500 to get her Subaru out of impound, and now hopes her story can serve as a warning to others.
“This is hunting season (for the NTA),” he told the Gazette Journal. “They’re not going to let us know that this is illegal. It’s not in their interest at all.”
Holland went on to admit that he needs to “take responsibility for not knowing” as he continues to fight the plan.
She An online fundraiser has started to help her with her legal fees and raise money to see if a lawyer could help her with her case.
As of Wednesday night, it had raised more than $2,000.
“It’s clear I’m just a grandmother taking the kids to Burn,” Holland told the Gazette Journal.
“But they knew what they were doing,” he said of the NTA agents. “We just didn’t know. Nobody knew.”
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