Since the new year, at least five rear license plates have been
stolen from cars in Gilroy, four of which were parked on the east
side of U.S. 101.
Gilroy
Since the new year, at least five rear license plates have been stolen from cars in Gilroy, four of which were parked on the east side of U.S. 101.
The owners of cars parked on Silacci Way, Arroyo Circle, East 10th Street, Obata Way and Westwood Drive reported missing rear license plates, according to police incident reports.
Thieves typically go for the rear license plate because it’s the plate with the registration sticker and the most visible to other drivers, Sgt. Jim Gillio said.
“If one of our officers is following somebody, they’re not going to see a car’s front plate,” he said.
License plates are usually stolen to conceal other crimes, like a stolen vehicle or to disguise a vehicle used to commit a crime, he said. In addition, registration stickers are sometimes peeled off to commit registration fraud, he said.
But police have ways of identifying a license plate that does not belong to the car to which it’s attached, Gillio said. Certain patterns of number and letter combinations are assigned to specific types of vehicles and ones that don’t match up tip off police, he said.
Though Gillio hasn’t noticed a drastic increase in the number of stolen license plates, he said people can protect themselves from thieves a couple of ways. When affixing a registration sticker to a license plate, vehicle owners can use a razor to make several thin slices in the sticker. Without ruining the sticker, vehicle owners can make it more difficult for thieves to remove the sticker intact, Gillio said. Also, special screws and screwdrivers can be purchased at auto parts stores to secure plates.
“If you make it more difficult, they’ll move onto the next one,” Gillio said.
If a license plate is stolen, the vehicle owner needs to report the theft to police and purchase replacement plates, which cost about $20, from the Department of Motor Vehicles.
