California rant - OT

[Don Jordan]

This is the silliest thing I've heard. My wife got a ticket because she didn't have her 2010 tag on her license plate. Some one had stolen it. You could see some of the tag still on the car. If the sheriff ran the plates he would have known they were current.

She got a ticket which I figured was a fix it ticket. We went to AAA and got a new tag. $15. She went to the sheriff's office to have the ticket signed off.

Nope! It's not a fix it ticket. It's going to cost her $65. Some moron steals the tag and we have to pay. The sheriff said California is in the hole and needs money. Some how this doesn't seem fair. She could go to court and fight it but that would cost a day off work plus time.

What a scam.

[james curl]

Texas quite using the stickers because people with insurance would just take a pair of tin snips and remove the corner of the plate because you could not pull the sticker without ruining it. Now use an inside sticker above the inspection sticker on the windshield.

[greg g]

NY has a problem with adhesive on the 2010 safety and emmision sticker that goes on the inside of the dash board.. They start to come lose, once they are loose on a corner they will peel off intact. Usually it yo ry to peal one off it will leave areas that say void. these will peel off intact making them attractive to thieves. If they walk by and notice its peeling, they will smash your window to remove it from the car. Resale can get them 50 or more bucks for the ime involved inthe smash and grab. the state recently OK'd th use of clear tape to reaffix the wayward sticker. Formally any taping was not considered Permanentmounting of the sticker and you could be ticketed for that.

If your sticker is heisted, not only do you have to pay for a new piece of side window glass, but the state was charging 20 bucks for new sticker. You had to prove yours was stolen with a police report and to replace it you had to go to the DMV with your inspection reciept in hand. or you could get a new inspection for the 28 dollar fee that intaled. If you got a ticket for driving w/o a current sticker you were also o the hook for that. NY is broke too, I have waited over 150 days for my income tax refund. Couldn't get throught ot he tax and finace office after about a dozen tries so I finally emailed my state senator, we'll see how far that gets.

[Abeblinkin]

I was the victim of the city being very low on cash too. Got a ticket yesterday for parking within 5 feet of an alleyway, but I was at least 12 feet from it but what am I going to do spend a day fighting a 25 dollar ticket, I believe thats the exact thing they were thinkin.

[JerseyHarold]

Maybe you can fight the ticket..it doesn't seem right that you should have to pay this fine.

Up until the early sixties, New York used a metal 'corner tag' in alternate years for the rear license plate. One day my father found that the corner tag was swiped from the back of our '52 Plymouth, so he reported it stolen and got another one. About six months later, he got a call from the police that they had recovered the tag! Turns out that each tag had a serial number stamped into it, and they stopped a car with our tag on it. All this in pre-computer days.

It would make a lot of sense to do the same thing today and print a serial number on the sticker. Thieves would think twice about stealing one.

[James_Douglas]

We used to take a razor blade and cut through the sticker (union jack style cuts) and that was if they try to peel it off they only get a part.

James

[Frank Elder]

Nebraska tags have a serial number, probably for the whole batch, that month...not for indivdual cars.

[Reg Evans]

CA stickers do too. Not sure if the number is different for each car.

[james curl]

Our windshield sticker we now use has the plate number on it. They print them on the PC printer at the tax office while you are there. If my memory serves me correctly the last of the plate stickers also had the plate number on them. Do not know how they did it then, we have used the windshield stickers now for the last 10 years or so.

[Plymouthy Adams]

Here in Georgia we have the decal validation also..the yearly sticker has the expiration year and month...somewhere back a couple years ago they included the registration plate number also inprinted on the decal so anyone could see the plate and sticker had to match..

somehow one of mine went missing..I discovered it prior to the local gestapo...cost to get another sticker...5.00

[48mirage]

File a report with the Sheriff's department over the stolen sticker then take a copy of the report to court. 50/50 chance the judge will let it go. If he doesn't on the way out of the courthouse remove the sticker from the judge's tag.

[WatchingWolf]

In the days of my misspent youth, a plate with several stickers stacked on top of each other was a prime candidate. (Like the Cali plate pictured above) That whole stack acts as a laminate making the state safety cuts worthless. Remove the previous years sticker before you apply the new one and you will be a lot less likely to get stripped.

Now, you understand that this involves removing two or possibly even four screws from your license plate and removing it from the car. Then heating the back side of the plate under the decal with a cigarette lighter to soften the glue. Remove the old sticker. You then place the new sticker in the same place as the old one replace the plate and reinstall the two or possibly four screws.

[mackster]

California is broke and they are a bunch of thieves so they will do anything they want to get extra cash! I got a ticket at midnight for 30 min parking zone! it turns out several cities have change their rule of during regular business hour parking to 24/7. that way they will give you a ticket regarless what time it is. .crooks! also on my watch I was only in that parking stop like 18 mins as I was going to the ATM.

[BobT-47P15]

Yes, we have those stickers here in MO also.

They went from putting them on the edge of the plate to right

in the middle of it. They do get swiped here also. I don't know what

the penalty is or the cost to replace. I think they already have cross

cuts in them now.

[paulbone]

NV puts the licence plate number on the tag - never seen one stolen YET.

[Young Ed]

I agree to remove the stack of old ones. I just use a flat razor and slice them off. No need to remove the plate. My parents have gotten 2 tickets lately for stupid stuff. My moms car was parked too close to a driveway. I guess its supposed to be 5 ft away. But it was their own personal driveway. Which way back my dad actually paid extra during a street project to have widened. Next one was just last thurs. Dad has his car dolly chained to a tree on the blvd. Guess you can't do that either. $32 ticket and they were going to come tow it if it didn't get moved. FYI Mom actually went to court over the driveway one and just got a reduced fee. She might fight the trailer one now too.

[JerseyHarold]

When I lived in Staten Island, NY parking was so difficult that the police would not ticket anyone across a residential driveway unless a complaint was made. Most times it was just the owner parking in front of their own house.

[Niel Hoback]

In Indiana, the annual license plate sticker has the expiration month and day, and also the number that is on the plate. You have to put the right sticker on the right palte if you have more than one vehicle. The stickers gotta match the plate or you're in trouble.