A handwritten license plate that caught the eye of police in Benicia early Friday may have scored points for penmanship, but officers weren’t a bit surprised when a check of the number revealed that the car had been stolen.
About 1 a.m., an officer spotted the paper plate in the 5000 block of East Second Avenue and saw “this beautifully handwritten license plate on a car,” police said on social media.
The plate, which sported the requisite seven numeric and letter characters, may have looked official enough for its creator, but it didn’t quite pass muster with police — amongst other issues, it included an expired registration date.
“We know we are not superheroes, but just FYI this is NOT a way to get one over on us.” Benicia Police Department post on Facebook
Although a photo posted by police of the handwritten license plate appears to show an expiration date of 2025, police said it is actually written to be 2023.
“We know we are not superheroes, but just FYI this is NOT a way to get one over on us,” the department said in a Facebook post.
A check showed that the car had been reported stolen out of Alameda.
The driver, a 38-year-old woman, was detained, arrested and booked into Solano County Jail without incident, police said.
The intent behind the automotive artwork wasn’t revealed, although it could serve as a great audition for the creator’s future career as an inmate — the California Prison Industry Authority is responsible for churning out thousands of real DMV plates every day from a factory at Folsom State Prison.