I bought a pair of near-perfect replica black-and-yellow California license plates for my MG. (I can’t tell the difference between the replicas and the real ones, but the maker said there are subtle differences – apparently so that they wouldn’t be considered ‘counterfeit’.) The number, TAA 951, is the same as on my first car; they don’t really ‘say’ anything. Anyway, tracking said they were delivered in February. I talked to the mail carrier, and she remembered putting the box on the gate since it was a sunny day. Mine is the only house around here with a gate, so I assume she didn’t put the box at someone else’s house. I contacted the company and they sent replacements. I also made a report to the Sheriff’s Department. I’m guessing that someone saw the box and thought to steal it. (Not a lot of crime here, but some kids broke the windows of a restaurant about a mile or so from here.)
So what does one do with stolen, fake license plates? They couldn’t display them openly, since they’d be taking the chance I’d see them. Assuming kids, I suppose they could just put them up in their room. Only one would expect a parent to ask where they came from. I check eBay every day, but in the month I’ve been looking they haven’t shown up there.
My guess is, you’re right that it was kids who stole the plates. Unsure of what shape the box would have been in, they might have thought it was something else worth stealing (a book, a dvd, a video game??). I expect they stole it, took it home, openned it up, and were monumentally disappointed that one of their first forays in to crime (a felony, no less), had such meager returns. I imagine they either tossed them, destroyed them, or otherwise had teenage fun with them. Don’t expect to see them on eBay either, as if they’re even halfway intelligent (which is questionable, of course), they’ll know that if the wrong person sees them, they’ll pretty much get caught red handed.
That plate design is so old, though (predating the now obsolete blue-&-yellow CA design) that any cop that sees them on a car that is newer than the mid-80s is going to run them anyway.
No. They’re not state-issued. Even if you had an old state-issued non-vanity license plate, you couldn’t have it registered to your car.
As for running the fake plates, I think that if I were a cop and I saw obsolete plates on a car I’d run them ‘just because’. They’d come up as invalid, and I’d pull the car over.
I want to use the car in a film, but I’d rather not have my actual plates on it. If I ever enter the car in a show, they’d be neat. They’re the same number as my first car’s.
