As a prank, students from local high schools have been taking advantage of the county’s Speed Camera Program in order to exact revenge on people who they believe have wronged them in the past, including other students and even teachers.
Students from Richard Montgomery High School dubbed the prank the Speed Camera “Pimping” game, according to a parent of a student enrolled at one of the high schools.
Originating from Wootton High School, the parent said, students duplicate the license plates by printing plate numbers on glossy photo paper, using fonts from certain websites that “mimic” those on Maryland license plates. They tape the duplicate plate over the existing plate on the back of their car and purposefully speed through a speed camera, the parent said. The victim then receives a citation in the mail days later.
Students are even obtaining vehicles from their friends that are similar or identical to the make and model of the car owned by the targeted victim, according to the parent.
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“I hope the public at large will complain loudly enough that local Montgomery County government officials will change their policy of using these cameras for monetary gain,” the parent said. “The practice of sending speeding tickets to faceless recipients without any type of verification is unwarranted and an exploitation of our rights.”
#2–Captain==that was a Columbo episode==I saw it a month or so ago. Perp got caught to because there was a sun angle shadow from the steering wheel but none on the photo from the hat. A bit simple, but entertaining.
#2, the raised vs. non-raised letter comparison would work if that were true in WA. Most of the special and personalized plates (including the one on my car) have letters just silk-screened, not embossed. Only the standard plates are still embossed.
And another urban legend makes the rounds. Until the police actually catch someone with a “photoshopped plate” then it just ain’t happening.
The fact that it could happen does not mean it has. All it would take to be demonstrated to be actually happening is for someone that can prove they were somewhere else, say a student attending a sport practice or at a game at another distant school, or a teacher in a meeting with several School Board members.
Until then, BOGUS !!!
#2 – eggman
All plates are flat in Delaware.
Thank God we still have some kids with imagination.
The best we could come up with was grabbing a bucket of white paint, going to midfield of their stadium, and writing in 30 foot font the score of our victory over our rivals
Of course that was the late 70′s , before printers.
Ir’s amazing I don’t have a record.
Mr. Fusion raises a valid question, so I went to the faithful Snopes.
Here is one similar story
http://snopes.com/autos/law/snaptrap.asp
but they could not confirm or deny it.
The first question that came to my mind was about the face of the driver. Doesn’t that usually show in those photo speed traps?
#26 – Greg Allen
>>Doesn’t that usually show in those photo
>>speed traps?
Many states only have plates on the back. Therefore, they’d have to take the photo from the back.
I live in this area and the cameras are a royal pain. They cause traffic congestion in areas that used to flow smoothly. I hope enough of this continues so they are forced to remove the stupid things.
Aren’t there covers for license plates that become opaque at viewing angles greater than 20 degrees? The cops can see ‘em on the street, but to cameras they say something quite different, like “XXX-1234.”
#17 “Eventually, all vehicles will be equipped with GPS and memory to keep track of the vehicle’s mileage, to be used by the state to determine the road-use tax owed by the owner. Add an RFID and this scam will be harder to pull off.”
When that happens all vehicles will also have a direct link to the driver’s bank account and every time the speed limit is broken will initiate a direct debit for the appropriate fine. Until either there’s no money left or your license is revoked when the car will stop.
Lets just go straight to the source and surgically implant a GPS tracking device into all humans, which will automatically deduct from their bank account the speeding ticket.
“the raised vs. non-raised letter comparison would work if that were true in WA. Most of the special and personalized plates (including the one on my car) have letters just silk-screened, not embossed. Only the standard plates are still embossed.”
You could also Photoshop something like a drop shadow or other minor distortion to simulate the appearance of embossed characters.
Heh, I let a friend use my car, and the sunpass thing wasn’t working, and yes, she went thru enough times to not only rack up 6k in fines, but they suspended my license for 3 YEARS.
And of course I wasn’t the one driving, but you know that’s the new ‘justice’ of the land. You are guilty before you can prove innocence. And luckily in Florida they don’t care about the fact you didn’t do it.
I don’t think people ‘get’ just how screwed up this is.
As long as you are not wearing your personal transponder (cellphone), the .gov will insist it’s you, hold you liable for the fines (even if you have air plane tickets showing you were not in the state/country) and yeah, you lose your driving “privlidge” for 3 years. And that ficticious NAU thing? Just try to get a drivers license out of USA once you’ve lost it there, you’ve lost it everywhere.
Funny how that works.
Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.