(Submitted by reader Anna B)
Yesterday evening while working as a dispatcher at Santa Monica PD we impounded a car with plates SMBMW31. It was registered to Santa Monica BMW, as would seem obvious. I took the 31 to mean it was the 31st in their fleet. I had not run any of their vehicles before, as I was unfamiliar with their using that method of ID for their vehicles. It’s so obvious that if I had run them before, I believe I would remember it. Today, at the beginning of my day, as I walked to my car I noticed a grey BMW parked almost at my bumper with license SMBMW35. I found the coincidence intriguing. What are the odds?
Well, you live in SM and there are hundreds of license plates with these letters. Also, people use BMW often so the odds are not that different. I have seen this in Malibu and hiHills. Check your records and you’ll see it is not that hard to find license plates with the city name. Take care, don’t take this very seriously.