Southern California woman gets 15 traffic tickets after nationwide retailer sells novelty license plates similar to hers

September 11, 2025 • 19:26

A woman is being hounded by debt collectors and forced to repeatedly prove her innocence because a clothing company sold novelty license plates identical to her legal vanity plate. Drivers across the country are using the fake plate, racking up automated traffic violations, and directing the consequences to her. This case highlights a significant failure in the automated enforcement system, which wrongly assumes the plate always correctly identifies the vehicle and its owner. Retailers and manufacturers of these look-alike plates face no accountability, while the DMV and law enforcement claim they are powerless to stop the sale of these items. The burden falls entirely on the innocent victim to navigate a bureaucratic nightmare to clear her name for offenses she did not commit, exposing the privacy and due process risks of relying on automated, plate-based surveillance for policing.

Read the article at CBS News