Bogus carpool stickers

[TEG]

http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/d11/vc21655_9.htm

21655.9. (a) (1) Whenever the Department of Transportation or a local authority authorizes or permits exclusive or preferential use of highway lanes or highway access ramps for high-occupancy vehicles pursuant to Section 21655.5, the use of those lanes or ramps shall also be extended to vehicles that are issued distinctive decals, labels, or other identifiers pursuant to Section 5205.5 regardless of vehicle occupancy or ownership.
... (c) A person shall not operate or own a vehicle displaying a decal, label, or other identifier, as described in Section 5205.5, if that decal, label, or identifier was not issued for that vehicle pursuant to Section 5205.5. A violation of this subdivision is a misdemeanor.

 

[SByer]

Ha, can't wait until those yellow stickers become useless!!

 

[Ardie]

I wouldn't put too much stock in the gendarmes pulling people over for "bad" stickers. After all, I don't want to count the *many* times that I was stopped by an officer for <insert reason here>, and they never noticed that I didn't have a front license plate. So why do we think they'll closely examine the stickers?

Okay, okay. So I did the same thing myself for a university parking garage sticker over 20 years ago. They never noticed then, either.

--Ardie
Thanks for all the free parking, UT.

 

[SByer]

I think what you're missing is that as of July 1st 2011, _all_ yellow stickers in CA become worthless, bogus or not.

 

[TEG]

I think what you're missing is that as of July 1st 2011, _all_ yellow stickers in CA become worthless, bogus or not.

And how much you wanna bet that the same people start putting fake white stickers on their non natGas/electric vehicles?

There will also be a new generation of hybrid stickers for the plug-in Prius and such. (I guess we don't know what color those will be yet.)

 

[TEG]

I ran the smog check history on this one:

figuring it would be blank since hybrids are exempt from smog checks, but this came up:

Station Name = MARTY VANICH AUTOMOTIVE REPAIR
City = SACRAMENTO
Make = HONDA
Model = ACCORD
Year = 2005
Date = 07/17/2009 04:17 p.m.
Certificate = PNK791797C

So apparently the hybrid logo is bogus too.
But even if it was a hybrid, a 2005 Accord hybrid was not eligible for carpool stickers since it gets less than 45MPH highway.

I wonder what sticker HE028712 was originally issued to?

My friend had the carpool stickers stolen off of his Prius. Apparently some people think just taking them from someone else's car and putting them on yours gets you into the carpool lane...

 

[Ardie]

:
<snip>
:
My friend had the carpool stickers stolen off of his Prius. Apparently some people think just taking them from someone else's car and putting them on yours gets you into the carpool lane...

Well, most of the time it does, because nobody looks at them that closely as they whizz by the rest of us in the non-carpool lanes. :-(

There is a cure for would-be thievery of such carpool / parking lot / country club / military base stickers; use a razor blade to make a cross-hatch diamond pattern of cuts into the sticker. The thief will have to peel off a hundred tiny bits and reconstruct them without obvious damage -- an impossible task. It works fine on the windshield, but use caution when putting a razor blade to a sticker on a plastic bumper.

--Ardie

 

[doug]

I thought the stickers were already designed to fall apart when you tried to remove them. If not, they should be.

 

[TEG]

I thought the stickers were already designed to fall apart when you tried to remove them. If not, they should be.

I think they are now, but perhaps the earlier ones were not.
Also, apparently some have taken to printing up their own forgeries.

 

[TEG]

http://green.autoblog.com/2007/04/12/thieves-stealing-carpool-stickers-in-california/

 

[TEG]

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...lert-camry-hybrid-hov-stickers-in-s-cali.html

http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-h...lifornia-carpool-law-fines-fake-stickers.html

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-prius-main-forum/28197-how-report-illegal-hov-stickers.html

http://priuschat.com/forums/attachm...pool-stickers-sale-ebay-hov_stickers_ebay.jpg

http://cngchat.com/forum/showthread.php?4095-saw-my-first-fake-Civic-GX-yesterday

 

[PopSmith]

I'm surprised that whoever was selling the legit sticker on eBay was asking $10k. At least it didn't have any bids when the screenshot was taken.

 

[TEG]

They spent some time trying to rationalize why attempting to sell them was OK...
http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...ehicle-yellow-carpool-stickers-sale-ebay.html

 

[TEG]

Greddy MR2 Turbo hybrid ?!