Car Thieves Are Stealing People's License Plates, Placing Them On Identical Stolen Cars And Racking Up Tickets

A San Francisco woman who had her car's front license plate stolen uncovered much more than her property when she went searching for it on Monday.

[...] Crooks are screwing them onto cars of the same make and model. Katie Lyons found multiple parking citations online in the last week, when she went to pay for a legitimate ticket.

She decided to circle the Nob Hill area where the driver had been ticketed, and came across her stolen plate on an identical Audi Q5 on California Street near Leavenworth Street.

"It's sophisticated – they stole a white Audi, they found a white Audi, stole the license plate, put it on a white Audi, and who knows what they've been doing with that white Audi," said Lyons.