Shifty Plates

One night during graveyard shift I was patrolling a section of the highway that runs right through the city. I saw a vehicle in front of me with expired license plates. I ran a check and found that the plates were expired but had been transferred to a new license. I initiated a stop and made contact with the driver, an older white female.

When I told her why I'd stopped her, she said that she had her new plates under the seat. She had bought new plates in March but never put them on! Since it was now the middle of November, I knew that she must have a good excuse.

She told me that she lived in the next town over and had been having problems with neighbors stealing from her. She didn't want them to take her new plates so she kept them under her seat. I explained to her that it would be pretty easy to find the perpetrator if her plates were stolen, especially if they put them on their own vehicle. I was going to write her a citation until she told me whom her neighbors were. They were people into trouble who were known for stealing in the city as well as in the county, so I could sympathize with her concerns. I let her go with a warning and an understanding that she should change plates before I saw her driving again. Since the incident, she has.