Vanity Plate Fail

"facw" (facw) 08/13/2019 at 14:08 • Filed to: Vanity Plates, California, government, Bugs

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Apparently some guy in California thought it would be cute to get “NULL” as his license plate. He apparently hoped it would cause his plate to get ignored in the system (which seems unlikely). However instead he started getting tickets for other cars that didn’t have a plate entry recorded (i.e. were NULL in the DB). While the bad charges were removed, they didn’t actually fix their software, they just told him to change his plate (he didn’t), so he continues to get new fines.

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If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > facw 08/13/2019 at 14:18

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Aremmes > facw 08/13/2019 at 14:25

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Droogie told the DEF CON audience that he received little sympathy from either the California DMV or the Los Angeles Police Department, both telling him to just change his plate to something else. That remains something he refuses to do.

Chariotoflove > facw 08/13/2019 at 14:26

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Some people like to be victims I suppose.

Chuckles > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 08/13/2019 at 14:28

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And another relevant xkcd:

merged-5876237249235911857-hrw8uc > facw 08/13/2019 at 14:50

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There was one like this with a “NO PLATE” vanity plate as well.  Same deal.  Got a bunch of tickets assigned to themselves.  Good times.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > facw 08/13/2019 at 16:41

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Haha I read this this morning as well. I hope this guy realizes that the DMV isnt going to reverse future charges anymore. Since they gave him a solution and he just refuses to take it. I am sure he can fight it in court and eventually win but that sounds like an annoying and expensive legal battle. In the end, all of this just costs the taxpayers money. It was “funny” for the first occurrence but he should just change it now. I am kind of curious how this story will unfold though. I am often a fan of “always feed the troll”.

facw > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 08/13/2019 at 16:45

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I feel like they should have handled it in the same way they’d handle it if someone got an obscene plate through (even unintentionally). Issue him a new plate, r efund the money, and blacklist the plate going forward. While this is certainly terrible code (seriously why are you testing against the string “NULL”), it seems unlikely to be worth fixing unless they are going to allow special characters on the plates (in which case I’m sure they have a bunch of bad bugs they’d need to fix).

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > facw 09/04/2019 at 11:20

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I’m surprised the DMV doesn’t rescind his plate.

facw > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 09/04/2019 at 11:23

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It seems like rescind the plate, add it to the block list, and refund his vanity plate fee would be the way to go.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > facw 09/04/2019 at 11:49

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Agreed.