Talk about a vacation story! A family heading out of town to go camping this morning was pulled over by police who believed their van was stolen. But what they and police eventually figured out was that the license plate had been unknowingly swapped.
At about 5:45 a.m., the LAPD saw the white van and ran its license plate, finding it was reported to be stolen. They soon pulled the car over on the 405 freeway near the Rinaldi Avenue exit. “One-by-one, family members got out of the car with their hands in the air and were instructed to lie face down in the middle of the freeway,” reported KTLA. “They were placed in handcuffs and taken into custody for questioning.”
Once everyone realized the license plate had been switched with a stolen vehicle’s one, they family was released. KTLA caught the whole thing on video.
Is that grandma on the roof?
THERE IS information missing in this post and the paper articles..
Do not think this is the whole story.
They dont say..
That they looked at the title of the car and released them THEN..
It dont say they went to the jail house and THEN fixed things.
its a BAD article. if leaves to many questions.
I agree with ECA, #21.
Where was this mess straightened out, at the side of the road or station house?
A commander does have some ‘splaining to do; why was so much resource used to corral a car with a “stolen” plate?
Let’s not judge. According to CCRO (Cheney Citizens Records Office) family members had called in sick for work.
Just thank God that Roscoe and Enos were on the case to keep everyone safe from these Criminals.
We can make fun of the cops..
but THEY didnt know what was happening Either.
Yes, it was over kill.
But, if you know what happens in S. Cali, this is defensive procedure.
I know you have seen the vids of 13 people Jumping out of a van, going 16 different ways.
A 1/2 paranoid cop is a good thing..
A 100% paranoid cop would have SHOT UP the vehicle, as they were getting out.
As I said in 22…NOT ENOUGH INFO.
Was OJ in there?
I would have just sat in the driver’s seat with my hands on the steering wheel and waited for them to ask for license and registration. Getting out of the vehicle makes the cops nervous.
Dude this is scary. I mean for me if this would have happened to me i would have been shot. I wouldn’t have laid on that ground. no fckn way.
I have seen the CHP do a similar stop. The officer stays behind his driver door and uses the PA system on his car to tell the occupants what to do. They also like to have at least 1 officer on the scene for each occupant. And for every couple of officers, a sergeant or lieutenant will appear.
Aren’t these the same LA cops who chased after OJ Simpson, very slowly? Never quite over taking him? Until he stopped and gave himself up? Yeah, I think it might be. Double standard. Since when are license plates proof of a criminality, when they’re so easy to remove and switch? So why don’t the police give EVERYONE the benefit of doubt, until they know otherwise? And not do this only for the rich and famous, and politically connected?
I’ve noticed that the Mexican cars I see here in California have a sticker on the rear window replicating the car’s license plate. So when you are behind them, you can see that the tag and the sticker match each other.
I assume that the Mexican states do that so people can’t easily swap plates.
It is a good idea. If we had that in California, then the cops would have taken 2 seconds to notice that the plates had been swapped.
Anybody check the plate on the front? Usually crooks don’t bother to be thorough.
And, it would seem, neither are the police.