Stolen car tags a pain to deal with

On weekday like any other, two Wichita residents received a surprise that changed their day.

It wasn’t a good surprise.

When Janae Hamel and her boyfriend, Dayton McShane, went to bed, their car tag was securely fastened, but the next day, it was missing, Hamel said.

“We really didn’t know what to do,” Hamel said. “We weren’t able to go anywhere. Our whole lives were basically put on hold because somebody decided to steal our tag.”

Hamel said her boyfriend had gone to visit his mom, and when he was on his way home, another driver flagged him down to tell him his tag was missing.

“I was morally upset considering I spent almost $200 to get that car registered and then within a blink of an eye, it’s all gone,” Hamel said.

From June 21 through June 27, 20 cases of stolen license plates were reported to the Wichita Police Department, according to an e-mail from WPD officer Charley Davidson. More than 650 license plates were reported stolen from June 27, 2015, through June 27 of this year.

“A lot of times, tags don’t get reported, so it’s nice to see that when this is happening, that tags are getting reported to us so we know that they’re stolen, and we can … get them recovered,” Wichita police Sgt. Nikki Woodrow said.

There are multiple reasons people might steal license plates, said Lt. Lin Dehning, a Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office spokesman. A new tag might be too expensive for the thief, or the thief just might not want to pay for a new tag.

“The ‘why’ is the question that’s always hardest to answer,” Dehning said.

Woodrow said she thinks people steal tags to use them for their own gain. For example, she said if they have a stolen car, they might steal a license plate to put on that car.

Both Dehning and Woodrow said it is important for people to report tags stolen as soon as they notice they are missing.

“If they (thieves) put the tag on and then go rob a store, the people that had that tag, they don’t want the police coming at them because they thought that they robbed the store,” Woodrow said.

Police officers run car tags as they drive around the city, and one of the department’s cars has a license plate reader that automatically reads tags and identifies stolen cars, Woodrow said.

“We do get quite a bit of stolen tags recovered from just regular car stops,” Woodrow said.

If a tag is run through the police department’s database and it does not match the car it is registered to, that is probable cause for an officer to pull the driver over, Woodrow said. If the car was stolen or the driver has other criminal activity, that can show up in the stop.

Once a stolen tag is recovered, it becomes the department’s property and is destroyed, Woodrow said.

Inconveniences pile up

Driving without a license plate is illegal, so it is important to get a new tag as soon as possible, Dehning said.

“That’s another inconvenient thing about having your tag stolen,” he said.

As soon as someone notices a missing car tag, the first thing to do is call 911 to make a report, Dehning said.

Being pulled over for a missing tag could result in a ticket, but it all depends on the situation, he said. Having made a report might help, but if you are not aware that your tag has been stolen and you get pulled over, the officer can direct you on how to make a stolen tag report, Dehning said.

“That might be good enough to get you home, but I don’t recommend driving to work for the rest of the week without a tag,” Dehning said.

“You’d be pushing your luck.

“You want to get a tag replaced as quick as you can.”

In Sedgwick County, the case number must be taken to the Sedgwick County Tag Office, and an ID and proof of insurance must also be presented, according to Melanie Bullcoming, who works in the tag office’s call center. After that, a new tag costs $6.

Illegal prevention measures

McShane said he had put his new tag in the rear window of his car to prevent it from being stolen.

License plates must be securely fastened and in a place and position that is clearly visible and legible, which does not include putting it in a rear window, Woodrow said.

“I will never suggest doing that,” she said.

A tag in the back of the window is considered to be improperly displayed, Woodrow said. The law states that the license plate assigned to a vehicle “shall be attached to the rear,” she said.

To keep their tags from being stolen, people can use more secure bolts or put a shield over the license plate for an extra safety measure, Woodrow said.

Dehning said people need to be careful when taking extra measures to protect their license plates because they could actually be doing something against the law. Some people put license plate frames or covers over their tags, but if it obstructs too much of the tag, that is illegal, he said.

“Like anything else, you can do everything right and still have your tag stolen,” Dehning said.

This story was originally published July 4, 2016 at 4:57 PM with the headline "Stolen car tags a pain to deal with."