# Incorrectly affixing license plate stickers
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incorrectly-affixing-license-plate-stickers/490656
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [March 24, 2009, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incorrectly-affixing-license-plate-stickers/490656 "2009-03-24T22:31:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2009, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incorrectly-affixing-license-plate-stickers/490656/21 "2009-03-25T15:12:57Z")
> [@Musicat](#):
>
> Seems odd to steal stickers. If I were going into the business of selling bogus stickers, I’d just print some from my computer. Even if they weren’t shiny, how much detail can you see from a distance?
You’d be surprised what an experienced officer can detect. I once had one coming at me from the opposite direction (on the other side of the median) on a 60 mph highway who saw I was out of date. Behind you on a city street I bet they could spot a phony sticker in a heartbeat.
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### Author:  [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2009, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incorrectly-affixing-license-plate-stickers/490656/22 "2009-03-25T15:21:19Z")
> [@Gary\_T](#):
>
> You’d be surprised what an experienced officer can detect. I once had one coming at me from the opposite direction (on the other side of the median) on a 60 mph highway who saw I was out of date. Behind you on a city street I bet they could spot a phony sticker in a heartbeat.
I doubt that with road grime and dust all over the plate that you would be able to tell the difference between a good “scan and print” and the original. You could even laminate the fake just to make it look more shiny.
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### Author:  [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2009, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incorrectly-affixing-license-plate-stickers/490656/23 "2009-03-25T15:27:53Z")
> [@Uncommon\_Sense](#):
>
> I doubt that with road grime and dust all over the plate that you would be able to tell the difference between a good “scan and print” and the original. You could even laminate the fake just to make it look more shiny.
That may be true. Another aspect, though, is that the people who steal stickers to use or to sell for a few bucks aren’t likely to have the equipment for this. It’s petty crime fueled by those who can’t afford a yearly renewal fee. I doubt it’s a demographic that owns computers and printers and such.
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### Author:  [@Eliphalet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eliphalet)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2009, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incorrectly-affixing-license-plate-stickers/490656/24 "2009-03-25T15:34:32Z")
> [@Baracus](#):
>
> Down here in NC we have a month sticker which is supposed to stay in place permanently and a year sticker that is replaced every year. Every once in a while I will see someone who has placed their new year sticker over their month sticker. I just don’t get it.
I accidentally placed the year sticker over the renewal month sticker (it was raining, I was in a hurry, and I screwed up). I went back into the DMV and asked if this was a problem, and was assured that it was not.
Turns out, it is.
The coldest day of the year of 2007, the St. Paul police gave me a ticket for it.
In MN, if the tab is not in the correct place, it’s a $100 fine. Having expired tabs is $110.
Eli
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### Author:  [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2009, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incorrectly-affixing-license-plate-stickers/490656/25 "2009-03-25T16:09:09Z")
> [@Gary\_T](#):
>
> But you aren’t going to look up every plate on every car that drives by.
In the U.K. ANPR cameras automatically check every number plate.
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### Author:  [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2009, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incorrectly-affixing-license-plate-stickers/490656/26 "2009-03-25T17:18:52Z")
I was pulled over when I was a teen for this very thing. I put the sticker in the proper place, but it was upside down. This is enough to get you pulled over, if the cop feels like it.
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### Author:  [@Rana\_Says\_Don\_t\_Even\_Go\_There](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rana_Says_Don_t_Even_Go_There)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2013, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incorrectly-affixing-license-plate-stickers/490656/27 "2013-03-25T20:36:01Z")
Everyone knows that they go in the corner and that’s the way it is…that’s the way it should be … the world is not in order and there will only be chaos unless it is that way. What’s next? people be putting their parking meter receipts on the non-curb side dash. C’mon, please!
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### Author:  [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2013, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incorrectly-affixing-license-plate-stickers/490656/28 "2013-03-25T20:49:05Z")
Congrats on reviving a thread that was _precisely_ four years old.
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2013, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incorrectly-affixing-license-plate-stickers/490656/29 "2013-03-25T21:02:17Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#):
>
> Congrats on reviving a thread that was _precisely_ four years old.
Everyone has a skill. Sometimes it takes a while to find it.
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### Author:  [@Gestalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gestalt)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2013, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incorrectly-affixing-license-plate-stickers/490656/30 "2013-03-26T01:01:10Z")
For some reason, whenever I see a post with a little black title, the post more often than not is resurrecting a zombie thread. Any idea why people who maybe find the Dope from google searches tend to want to title their posts?
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### Author:  [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2013, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incorrectly-affixing-license-plate-stickers/490656/31 "2013-03-30T13:30:25Z")
> [@Uncommon\_Sense](#):
>
> I doubt that with road grime and dust all over the plate that you would be able to tell the difference between a good “scan and print” and the original. You could even laminate the fake just to make it look more shiny.
I wonder which is the bigger crime. Forging a sticker or stealing one?
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