I get off the train today and walk to my car, where I had to park in the very back of the lot because everything else was full when I got there this morning. I made it a point to park next to a nicer car than mine so that should any deviants feel the need to cause some trouble, they would choose the car NEXT to mine.
Anyway, I finish the long trek back to my car and…awesome, I have no license plate.
Not knowing what protocol to follow, I call 911. She says she’s sending an officer. He gets my info and the plate number from my registration so that he can report it as stolen. So at least no one can go joyriding with my license plate on their car and in turn get me in trouble. Right? I mean, is that what they’re planning on doing? What the fuck else would you need my plate for.
Anyway, went to the Auto Tags place which luckily was still open, and they hand me a new plate and new registration for 24 bucks. Of course now I’m paranoid that it will happen again, and cost me another registration, and another 24 bucks.
Fuck you. What kind of worthless shit needs to take someone’s license plate. They should institute the death penalty for people like you. Yes, I’m pro the death penalty for human shitstains. Ya know all those kung fu movies where showing another person the slightest disrespect would result in your immediate (and painful) death? Yeah, I want to live in a society like that. I should be able to mount your heads on my dashboard as a warning.
Good call on calling the cops. That doesn’t sound like a bad idea if you are a criminal - steal a car identical to yours license plate and then commit a crime. I think you are covered though. Sorry about the loss.
I really am surprised how quickly I was set up with a new plate. Even the cop was under the impression that they’d have to order one and give me a temp tag in the meantime. But I just showed her my registration and license, signed my name, got a new registration and a new plate, like they just had a pile of um sitting there. Much less of an inconvenience than I thought it would be, considering the tag place was 5 minutes from the train station.
Uh… but if they steal a car why do they need another different license plate to cover their tracks?. This would make sense if the plate thief is intending to use the plate on his own car, identical to Mr. Soap Monkey`s.
They may keep some in stock. When I bought my car, I drove off the lot with plates because the dealer keeps some in store. All I had to wait on from the state was the registration.
I had a former roomie who would buy cheap cars then steal license plates and put them on the car.
Why? Because he had no license and no insurance, and it was his way of getting around it. Other than, you know, paying off his thousands of dollars in fines and waiting out the suspension.
How did I find out? I was in the car when we were pulled over. The cops were very nice to me because I had no freaking clue but man was I ticked at him. Especially since that’s the one and only time I’ve had the pleasure of being in cuffs.
My plates were stolen in Maryland. I think people put them on stolen cars. A blue civic is reported stolen with plates ABC-123 the cops see a blue civic, but it doesn’t have plate ABC-123 so they don’t pull it over.
The one time it happened to me, the thief bothered to install a different plate. I have no idea how long it took me to notice.
Come to find out, personalized plates were pretty cheap back then, so I replaced it with one of those…figuring that a potential thief wouldn’t want to draw the attention of having a plate with a rather obscure medical term on it. Don’t know if that was the reason, but that plate was never stolen.
Someone nicked my plate a couple of years back. I forget if I called 911 or the non-emergency line; probably the latter. It happened same as your situation; called the cop out, he took down the info, gave me a slip, and once I got off work all it took was one visit to the DMV to get a new plate.
According to the cop, my plate probably got stolen because it was an older one (Arizona switched from a brown and white plate to a sunset design several years ago) and criminals found those useful for stolen cars, drug running, all sorts of fun stuff.
It’s good that you reported it immediately; the last thing you’d want is a ticket in the mail because they caught your license plate on camera while speeding through a red light, or something worse.
Well I’m sorry, but I didn’t have the 10 digit phone number for my local police station memorized. And considering that it would have been illegal for me to drive without a plate on my car, I couldn’t think of anyone else to call. I was (essentially) stranded.
If I got pulled over, what would I have done?
“I’m sorry officer, but my plate got stolen. I was gonna swing by the station on my way home to report it, honestly.”
By calling 911 they dispatched a cruiser to my location, the officer took my information and logged the plate and lost/stolen and therefore I was safe to travel, now that any cop who pulled me over would have access to the verification of my story.
I was in a similar situation. I stopped to help someone who’d had a minor accident. She wasn’t hurt, but it was going to take more than the two of us to get her car out of the road. It wasn’t an emergency, but I didn’t have a phone book with me.
And I highly doubt that 911 only has 3 or 4 lines.
Oh shit! I can’t get through to 911! How does this happen!?
Seriously. One time when my friends were in a semi-serious car accident I ended up in three simultaneous conversations with 911 dispatchers: my one friend called from within the wrecked car, my brother called (he had been driving me) and another friend who was following us had called. For some reason everyone thought to pass the phones off to me.
If you don’t know the number for the police, dial 411 and ask Information. Or diall 0-0 and ask for an Operator assisted call. I know that works on land lines. Is it just O for cell phones?
Or keep the police on speed dial. Not a bad idea anyway.
After an increase in plates being stolen here due to petrol station drive-offs, the plod recomend pop-riveting the plate to the car. Of course if everyone does that then the scum will start carrying drills instead of screwdrivers.