Carrier faces possible felony charge after fake license plate discovered

California Highway Patrol in December discovered a black Freightliner with a fake license plate hanging on top of the truck's real plates, and now police are investigating the carrier for what could be a felony. 

"Officer McCaslin made a traffic stop on a commercial vehicle on southbound SR-99, at Madera Avenue (SR-145)," CHP wrote in about a stop in the town of Madera in a Facebook post. 

During the stop, the officer "noticed two license plates attached to the front of the semi, overlapping each other," CHP said. "The front license plate had a suspicious print on it. A closer look revealed the outer license plate was a printed copy of a real license plate, attached to a metal plate. It did not belong to this vehicle and was covering the original plate."

Nice try. See the real plate poking out behind this fake one? CHP Madera

Anyone hauling over-the-road will be familiar with the old "paper DOT numbers" hustle employed by sometimes shady carriers, but the printed fake license plate might just be a new one. 

"California law requires vehicles to display state issued license plates belonging to the assigned vehicle," CHP said. "Falsifying or forging license plates is a serious offense."

California Vehicle Code Section 4463(a)(1), states that "A person who, with intent to prejudice, damage, or defraud, commits any of the following acts is guilty of a felony":

Alters, forges, counterfeits, or falsifies a certificate of ownership, registration card, certificate, license, license plate, temporary license plate.

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Did the driver in this case get charged? Not exactly. 

CHP told us "the driver who was not the registered owner of the vehicle was cited for the moving violation, which led to the discovery of the fabricated license plate."

The Madera CHP office is "conducting an investigating into the fabricated plate," CHP said, which could result in charges against the registered owner/carrier. 

California Highway Patrol's Cargo Theft Task Force has in the past shared horror stories of cargo theft rings that run rampant in the Golden State, bemoaning the "catch and release" policy towards offenders. Read more about the schemes at the link.