Question about license plates.

[Got Stuff?]

What does it mean when the LEA dispatcher says that the CA license plate that was just reported "is not in their system"?


Sooooo, long story short.

Kinda spooky now that I think about it


My wife was home alone all day and early in the morning she noticed a dark sedan with blacked out windows parked in front of our house just idling there. She went out for errands and came back hours later and there the dude still is. She knocks on his window to see whats up. He is sitting in the idling car, in the drivers seat doing something on a laptop and says that he "is just hanging out". He closes the blacked out window on her and ends the conversation.

Wife goes in and calls the Sheriff. She gives the dispatcher the license plate of the dudes car and the dispatcher states that the plate is not in their system. No mistakes about the #.....wife double checked numerous times.

So, all of a sudden the dude takes off...5 minutes before the cruiser rolls by! Then he comes back and parks again....same spot. Wife calls Sheriff again and now I'm on my way home. 30 minutes go by and the cruiser rolls by again but keeps going and does not stop at the suspect car. a few minutes later he bails out just minutes before I roll around the corner.

Have not seen the guy since.

Is my TFH on too tight?!?!

And what is with the license plate that came back no record found?

[gimme]

Government employee. Leo, FBI, cia and the likes can have their registration muted so if ran, there is no record. Neighbor is a federal agent....right from his mouth. Even his personal cars won't come up with anything

TapTalk....bleh!

[WILDMAN442]

Several vehicles I have ran have come back like that and most of the time they are government employees of one sort or another.

Justin

[BigDogatPlay]

Record not on file could be from a number of things....

** Paperwork on the plate not yet through DMV.
** Mistake reading the plate / relaying to the dispatcher
** Fake plate
** Registered to a .gov and they don't want to put that out on the air
** Registered to a /gov and the plate is cold, meaning it's supposed to come back not on file.

Not sure why a dispatcher would be telling an RP what the plate status is, but there it is.

[DesertGunner]

Wrong. LEOs and others can have their plate "confidential-ized" (not sure what the real term is.) So that instead of Joe Smith, 123 sunshine lane, Sacramento, ca it comes back to Joe Smith, Federal bureau of investigation, Sacramento, ca. The only plates that come back "no record" are "cold plates" on cars owned by the agency. I could be wrong though, it's been known to happen.

[Got Stuff?]

Wrong. LEOs and others can have their plate "confidential-ized" (not sure what the real term is.) So that instead of Joe Smith, 123 sunshine lane, Sacramento, ca it comes back to Joe Smith, Federal bureau of investigation, Sacramento, ca. The only plates that come back "no record" are "cold plates" on cars owned by the agency. I could be wrong though, it's been known to happen.

^^ From my experiences, I vote for this. ^^

Either way, a stranger parked practically in my driveway for most of the day sitting in his idling, blacked out car, working on a laptop and refusing to identify himself or why he's there makes me a tad bit jittery!

[Ron-Solo]

It's probably a govt vehicle on a stakeout somewhere.

[blakdawg]

Wife goes in and calls the Sheriff. She gives the dispatcher the license plate of the dudes car and the dispatcher states that the plate is not in their system. No mistakes about the #.....wife double checked numerous times.

Can you figure anything out from the format of the letters/numbers?

e.g., NLNNNNN (N=number, L=letter) is a commercial plate (pickup truck, work truck)

NLLLNNN is a regular passenger vehicle

NNNNNNN is an exempt .gov vehicle

Was it a recently issued plate? (starting with 5 or 6 if it's NLLLNNN) Does the age of the plate seem to match the age of the car? If it's a recent plate but an older car, that sounds like a private owner.

Was it an import or domestic car?

Was there a registration sticker on the back plate? Was it current?

Was the laptop sitting on the passenger seat or on a dash mount? Any unusual antennas?

Custom or stock wheels? Fat/skinny tires?

Seems unlikely that if he's some super-secret-squirrel TLA type, he'd be that conspicuous. And if he's a criminal, probably wouldn't hang around that conspicuously after being challenged/talked to.

[jmzhwells]

Are you or any of your neighbors collecting workmens comp? Lots of wierd ppl trolling looking for comp fraud.

[Philthy]

He was probably stealing someone's wifi. I've done it...

[Notorious]

Depending on your agency... the protocol for reporting a confidential plate might be different than what other agency's do.

When we ask, the dispatcher will tell us, plates comes back 10-35 and when we're clear, they'll give us the R/O name and agency. However, I don't know what is the protocol if someone other than a LEO calls and asks for the same info. By law, when we run DMV info it is confidential and cannot be given out to non-LEO, so maybe the dispatcher just didn't want to say it or couldn't say it to you?

The patrol unit might have been called to the area on initial report and later got an update that the car he was sent to check out is on a C-5 and to not disturb. Who knows?