What happens if you're caught driving with the wrong license plates?
Where I worked, this was called “fictitious plates or registration.” It was regarded as considerably more serious than driving without registration.If an officer found a car bearing plates registered to another car, his first suspicion would be that the car is stolen, because that is frequently the case. A smart car thief will steal a set of cold plates from a car of the same make and model, but most car thieves aren’t that smart. If you run the plates on a Ford and they come back to a Volkswagen, you start thinking, “stolen car.”If the officer thinks he is dealing with an occupied stolen car, he may conduct a high-risk stop, which is where everyone inside the car is brought out one at a time and proned on the pavement, at gunpoint. It will be an event you will not quickly forget.Less commonly, I would stop someone with fictitious plates, and they would tell me, “My plates expired, so I put these on it so I could drive it.” Having the wrong plates on the car might make it less noticeable to the cops, but the consequences of getting caught were considerably more grave.If you were driving a car with no plates or expired plates, we would write you a ticket for “registration required.” That was a $15 fine, and the court would almost always dismiss it if you got the car registered by the time you went to court.If you were driving a car with fictitious plates,The car would be impounded.The plates would be seized.You would get a ticket (or possibly be arrested) for driving with fictitious plates ($375 fine), and probably also for driving without insurance, because unregistered cars are seldom insured.The DMV would suspend the car’s registration, meaning there would be more hoops to jump through to get it registered.You might be on the receiving end of a high-risk car stop.Just get the car registered. It’s cheaper for everyone.
What happens if you run from the police in a car and get away?
Assumption: you’re in the USA.If you’re very, very lucky: nothing will happen because you actually got away without being identified. That’s bad, because you’ll get cocky and overconfident and you’re almost guaranteed to try that foolishness again.If you’re slightly less lucky: you’re on camera. Dash cam. Traffic cam. Cell-phone cam. Security cam. Somewhere there’s a camera pointed at you and they’ll get either your license plate number or at least a good description of you and the vehicle. Very shortly there’s a warrant for your arrest and you’re in the LEIN system (Law Enforcement Information Network). Now you’re on a multi-state list that every police agency has access to. Don’t get pulled over. Don’t use a credit card, a debit card, your iphone (toss that out the window now!). Don’t call mom. Don’t access any of your social networks. Facebook is the prosecutor’s best friend and the biggest Snitch on the internet.If you’re completely hosed: that security cam image is nice and clear and on the 6:00 news. Someone remembers you from facebook and now they have your name and the address of every friend and acquaintance you’ve ever had. You’re running out of cash, and you’re running out of gas. You’re already on parole and you have a 15-year tail (remember, you’re completely hosed) so you’re holed up in a seedy motel with a carton of Newport 100’s and you don’t even like them. You might as well smoke ’em because tobacco is no longer available in prison. This scenario is not made up, by the way, because it happened to someone I know.Don’t make any sudden moves. Law enforcement has good justification to use lethal force. Wait for the inevitable knock on the door and stand back. They will not wait for you to open it.
Can you be charged with shoplifting if you didn't leave Walmart with the property you're being charged with taking?
One night I was bored enough to read the manual of procedures to detain shoplifters for a large grocery chain.Customers acting suspiciously were to be continually observed, ideally in-person, until they attempted to exit the store.They were not to be touched unless an associate observed them taking something and passing through cash registers. Store employees may have verbal contact to assist them with making a purchase, but couldn't say anything that would indicate they consider the customer's behavior suspicious.Detaining someone before they had opportunity to pay was not allowed. That was to avoid situations where the suspect doesn't actually take anything out of the store but leaves them elsewhere in the store.If you were detained before you had opportunity to pay for something or after changing your mind about buying something and leaving it behind elsewhere in the store, you may wish to contact an attorney to take action against the store. It is possible the employees violated their own shoplifting protocol.
If a police officer wrote down the wrong information on your traffic ticket, such as writing the wrong birthday, would you still have to pay the fine?
The best approach, in my opinion, would be to go to the court, or call them and ask if they have any record of your citation. The post office doesn't always deliver mail correctly, and the courts dont always send out notices correctly. You still have to appear at the court on or before the date on the citation and you need to be able to prove that you appeared.A problem may occur if the court didn't receive a copy of the citation--even though they are supose to, they might not want to schedule an arraignment date for you, if they refuse you can talk to the DA's office and they may be willing to dismiss the case due to the court not receiving the citation. It is easier for them to do that than to try and find out what happened.If an arraigment date is set, it is often on the same day as you go in, you can tell the judge at the arraignmen that you received a notice made out to someone with your name but with a diffrent birth date, and ask that the ticket be dismissed. Don't lie but try to avoid admitting that the ticket is actually yours.In California there is a procedure for a trial by declaration, where you fill out a form and tell your side of the story on the form. I have never used it, but it gives you the opportunity to note that the ticket was to the "wrong" person because of the birth date error, without the court being able to ask any follow up questions, such as "but did you actually have an encounter with the police person"If the “trial by declaration” goes against you, you can ask for a trial before a judicial officer (judge or commissioner depending on the jurisdiction). There is a relatively short time to request this new trial so do it as soon as you received the notice of an adverse decision at the trial by declaration and either deliver it to the court clerk with a copy for the clerk to receipt and return to you or send it certified mail. A trial date will be set for a hearing, and the police person will have to come in, There is a possibility that the ticket issuer may not appear either order to avoid embarrassment or for some other reason in which case the judicial officer will almost always dismiss the case for want of prosecution.If you go trial and admit that the ticket was in fact handed to you, the birth date wouldn't be enough to get it dismissed. However, an error in citing the offence -- wrong code section -- clearly would, and a wrong location likely would.