Ever since motor vehicles required registration, motorists have tried to cheat the authorities, either to avoid license costs or to commit crimes. Below are some examples.
Cheating the Tax Man
License fee evasion is an old game. So much so that the Washington State Patrol put together a display of captured tomfoolery that was shown at fairs and public events in the 1920s. The Post-Intelligencer photo above gives some examples that range from hilariously bad to clever.
A personal favorite is at the bottom-left column. Someone appears to have taken a 1916 Washington passenger plate and attempted to convert it to a 1918 For-Hire plate.
This 1954 Washington Dealer plate was the victim of an attempt to change the date to 1955. Unlike other vehicle classes, which all had 1954 license plates renewed with aluminum 1955 tabs, dealer plates were issued annually throughout the 1950s, and a proper 1955 dealer license plate would have an embossed (a professional factory-embossed) “55” date. Likely the owner was too cheap to pay the registration that year.
This Oregon plate was “renewed” with a 1996 Washington sticker. How someone in Oregon got their hands on a Washington sticker is a mystery.
The irony is that Washington’s license fees were substantially higher than Oregon’s in that era, using an assessment based on the vehicle’s value, as opposed to Oregon’s low flat rate.
This more-recent China license plate had a similar alteration made, changing the number. The “F” prefix was altered with paint and a vinyl sticker to a “J” prefix.
More Nefarious Purposes
On a much more serious level are cases where license plates are modified to avoid detection while committing crimes.
The article below details the great pains taken by three criminals who robbed a bank in tiny Rosalia, Washington in August 1935, killing Marshal Albert Lemley
These bandits clearly put a lot of thought into their plans, armoring their stolen car and pretty convincingly using paint to alter the numbers of their license plate, changing it from C-32485 (a Spokane County number) to O-32486 (a Walla Walla county number). While this wouldn’t fool anyone devoted to license plate esoterica (primarily because passenger car registrations in Walla Walla county wouldn’t have ever reached five digits in that era, much less 32,486), it certainly would be effective enough to create confusion and slow down any investigation of eyewitness accounts.
The main perpetrator, Reese Bailey, was on the lam for more than a year, ultimately captured by law enforcement after a shootout in Jackson, Ohio in November 1936. He was sentenced to life in Alcatraz. A local farmer was indicted but acquitted, and a third suspect was never found.
Danny's License Plates 