# License Plate has me baffled.. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 4, 2006, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/license-plate-has-me-baffled/342996 "2006-02-04T16:19:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Burrido](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Burrido](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Burrido)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/license-plate-has-me-baffled/342996/1 "2006-02-04T16:19:09Z")
On a new Black Porshe Boxter in San Bernardino, California. CHP SHY Friend says it took him a bit to get it, but I can’t figure it out. Anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/license-plate-has-me-baffled/342996/2 "2006-02-04T16:22:46Z")
Afraid of the California Highway Patrol, since the car may be a ticket magnet? ---
**Author:** ![LiveOnAPlane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3d9bf3/32.png) [@LiveOnAPlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LiveOnAPlane)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/license-plate-has-me-baffled/342996/3 "2006-02-04T16:26:17Z")
Yep, I think that’s it…California Highway Patrol SHY. ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/license-plate-has-me-baffled/342996/4 "2006-02-04T21:46:08Z")
Baker one niner to seven mary three, come in. Better than FU CHP, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/license-plate-has-me-baffled/342996/5 "2006-02-04T22:31:06Z")
I read it as “chip shy”, as in ‘one chip shy of a cookie’. One of many expressions meaning not quite all there, i.e. mentally deficient. Like ‘one bushel shy of a wagon’, ‘a bale shy of a load’, etc. So I expected it would be a joke plate someone would get for their spouse’s car! ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/license-plate-has-me-baffled/342996/6 "2006-02-04T22:49:45Z")
Maybe it was owned by a couple whose names were Catherine Hannah Potter and Steven Henry Young? ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/license-plate-has-me-baffled/342996/7 "2006-02-04T23:50:05Z")
Hah! And I was thinking, “Maybe it belongs to a CHP officer whose initials are SHY.” But that was my 2nd thought. My 1st was, “Shy of the California Highway Patrol.” ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/license-plate-has-me-baffled/342996/8 "2006-02-05T01:30:28Z")
GQ SHY - **xash** General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/license-plate-has-me-baffled/342996/9 "2006-02-05T02:18:37Z")
I agree, it’s California Highway Patrol shy. That’s ok; I saw AUI LOX on a acquiantance’s license plate for months before figuring it out. She was a blonde, a factor I should have picked up on sooner. ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/license-plate-has-me-baffled/342996/10 "2006-02-05T03:41:14Z")
> [@appleciders](#): > > That’s ok; I saw AUI LOX on a acquiantance’s license plate for months before figuring it out. She was a blonde, a factor I should have picked up on sooner. I assume “LOX” is “locks”, as in “hair”, but I’m not getting “AUI”. As a side note, does anyone else remember that old game show where you had to guess what license plate numbers meant? ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/license-plate-has-me-baffled/342996/11 "2006-02-05T03:53:26Z")
Cheap and Shy. That dude only asks girls out once a year and takes 'em to McDonalds. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/license-plate-has-me-baffled/342996/12 "2006-02-05T03:55:13Z")
> [@DooWahDiddy](#): > > I assume “LOX” is “locks”, as in “hair”, but I’m not getting “AUI”. Think Periodic Table and the Three Bears. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/license-plate-has-me-baffled/342996/13 "2006-02-05T04:31:09Z")
> [@DooWahDiddy](#): > > I assume “LOX” is “locks”, as in “hair”, but I’m not getting “AUI”. > > As a side note, does anyone else remember that old game show where you had to guess what license plate numbers meant? AU = Gold + I = Goldi(e) ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/license-plate-has-me-baffled/342996/14 "2006-02-05T05:24:06Z")
There’s an eight-character plate on a car I see at times parked in my neighbourhood. It’s something like BE3NTB3A, a string of characters that make no sense in English, but which I suspect are an approximation of some Cyrillic word in Roman letters. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen it since I wanted to post it in the _last_ license-plate thread. (There are a LOT of Eastern European people in this neighbourhood. I went googling for a local credit union, and found maybe a dozen. Half were Ukrainian, one Lithuanian (I’d walked by it a dozen times and from the name I’d thought it was a Spanish-speaking temp agency), one Polish, one Croatian, and one was a descendant of the old hydro-workers’ credit union. I guess it makes sense. When I lived in Oshawa, a huge GM town, we used to bank at the Auto Workers’ Credit Union.) ---
**Author:** ![socal57chevy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9e5f3/32.png) [@socal57chevy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/socal57chevy)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/license-plate-has-me-baffled/342996/15 "2006-02-05T09:13:46Z")
I always liked 3M TA3 It looks better in the rear-view mirror! ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/license-plate-has-me-baffled/342996/16 "2006-02-05T10:35:26Z")
Well, there’s always HIHOAG which lives a couple of streets along, and never fails to raise a smile {I used to have C2H5OH when I was young, drunk and stupid}. ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/license-plate-has-me-baffled/342996/17 "2006-02-05T15:30:08Z")
Try this one, folks: **GDSRSRC** A friend and I saw this one a couple weeks ago. We pronounced it as “gidserserk” but we could not figure out what it possibly could mean. Now we call any indecipherable license plate we see a “gidserserk”. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/license-plate-has-me-baffled/342996/18 "2006-02-05T15:42:37Z")
> [@dwc1970](#): > > Try this one, folks: > > **GDSRSRC** I see it as shorthand for “God’s Resource”, implying the driver is a religious sort. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/license-plate-has-me-baffled/342996/19 "2006-02-06T00:30:17Z")
> [@Sternvogel](#): > > I see it as shorthand for “God’s Resource”, implying the driver is a religious sort. I was thinking the same meaning, but figured the owner was a kick-ass Mac programmer. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/license-plate-has-me-baffled/342996/20 "2006-02-06T01:19:00Z")
Years ago, I remember a fool who drove his big black Cadillac (that his baby’s momma was paying for) with the plate “ON WLFR”. Talk about just asking for it from the cops on patrol. I never actually saw the car; I noticed it because of the _large number of tickets_ that were coming thru the traffic court computer system issued to this car (and unpaid). These stopped after a few months; I never did find out just what happened there. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/license-plate-has-me-baffled/342996.md?page=2)