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The similar successful plate obscuring technique that amazes me is the plastic plate covers. The law says anything that obscures the plate is illegal, yet these dirty hazy plastic covers that serve no purpose whatsoever are tolerated rather than ticketed.

I work in film production and a couple of years ago a Grip was busted for using "prop" plates on his pick-up truck. He had been doing it for months and he got served with every single ticket plus mega-fines for fraud etc. Ouch.

it may not be new but it's still clever.

also, i've seen cars drive around with 'confusing' license plates (like II11III1, etc). while that probably wont fool a camera at a toll booth, it might fool a human looking at the plates

I'm sure this type of activity happens far more often than what gets reported.

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Can you imagine the enforcement problems if NYC ever implements congestion pricing?

There was a story on 20/20 that featured a man who evaded parking tickets in the 5 boros for years. All he did was put black electrical tape on his license plate to change some of the characters (ie, F to E or 0 to 8) and double parked, or parked in front of hydrants or in red zones throughout NYC. Of course some unfortunate NYers ended up getting his parking summonses and didn't know until they were interviewed for the story how in the world they were getting those summonses in the first place.

This is an old story I read it last year.

This is not the first time this has occured. About six months ago perhaps I was watching the news and they caught a truck driver doing the same thing - I think it may have been in Brooklyn. This is not new.

it may be fraudulent, but that's pretty clever.

Toll-dodging truck driver's scam squashed: cops

Monday, January 12, 2009
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Port Authority Police said a Jersey City truck driver has gone to extremes to avoid paying tolls.

Fifty-year-old Allan Flores has been arrested for allegedly rigging his license plate to avoid toll cameras on the George Washington Bridge.

Flores is charged with theft of services and deceptive business practices, officials said. It is not immediately clear if he has retained a lawyer.

Port Authority spokesman Pasquale DiFulco told The Record on Friday that Flores rigged the plate with a hinge and wire that ran into the cab of his truck.

The hinge could be activated from the truck cab, lifting the vehicle's real license plate to reveal a grease-smudged plate underneath it, officials said.