8 hours ago
Stolen U-Haul Found 2000 Miles from Home Due to a Hand-Painted License Plate, Police Say
Two people have been arrested after authorities say they were spotted driving a U-Haul truck with a fake license plate — but this wasn't your typical fake. According to the Alhambra Police Department (APD) in California, the department's officers noticed the plate was hand-painted to look like a legitimate Arizona plate.
Authorities say the U-Haul truck was spotted around Garvey Avenue and Montezuma Avenue, about six miles east of downtown Los Angeles; police saw the fake license plate and stopped the suspects for questioning. During the investigation, the police say they determined that the truck had been reported stolen in Chicago, leading to the arrest of Andrew Menas and Nicole Wetzel; they were both booked into the APD's jail.
The APD, apparently, couldn't help but have a little fun with the whole event when they posted about it on their Facebook page: 'Remember, if your masterpiece is on a stolen vehicle, it's definitely not going in an art gallery; it's going straight to evidence.'
It's easy to laugh at an attempt to pass off an art project as legitimate vehicle registration, but think about it this way: it's about 2000 miles from Chicago to the place where the APD ultimately stopped the truck. If the fake plate was on the truck the entire way, that means the U-Haul covered two-thirds of the country and crossed at least seven states before any authorities noticed.
Under California law, a person that is caught with an altered or forged license plate can be charged with a felony. If convicted, the sentence can include a $10,000 fine and up to 3 years in jail. The irony of it all is that if these suspects are convicted and sent to state prison, they may end up... working in the license plate factory.
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