Halifax Man Reports Theft of Revalidation Sticker on his Motorcycle





A Halifax man, Dillon Sambasivamwas robbed recently of the revalidation sticker on his number plate. This, he says, was done by partly cutting off the motorcycle’s licence plate to reach the revalidation sticker on the plate.

“The motivation was clearly the sticker, that they just didn’t want to renew their plates and put the sticker on it,” the man told Globalnews. “I guess somebody had taken some metal shears and physically cut the sticker off,” he said. Adding that he discovered the theft towards evening after he had left his motorcycle parked in a parking garage downtown.

The man said he reported the theft to the police and then proceeded to an Access Nova Scotia office, to get a replacement which according to him, cost about $6. He had to wait about 90 minutes to get this replacement done.

“[Thieves] could be charged with the possession of stolen property, not to mention we would have to review whatever it was that was prompting them to put that on their licence plate already — whether it was expired or they were a suspended driver, we’d follow up with those charges and most likely, we’d seize the plate that it was placed on as well,” said police Const. John Macleod, speaking to Globalnews on the crime. He said police have received prior reports of similar thefts.

Stolen stickers are however useless as every sticker contains its own special set of numbers and running a number plates numbers through a system would reveal if its expired or not. However, this has not deterred thieves from targeting revalidation stickers and licence plate numbers.

According to the report, Marla MacInnis, a spokesperson for Service Nova Scotia, explained that the cost of replacement for a non-personalized plate is $5.80, and a replacement sticker costs $2.30. In the past 12 months, the number of replacement plates has totalled 21,475. Of those, 17,265 were for defective plates, 3,825 were for lost plates, and 385 for stolen plates.

When plates or stickers are stolen, the vehicle owner has to pay for new plates and tags and report the stolen plates to the police

Over the years this builds up layers of stickers. A thief can simply run a razor blade under the stickers and they come off intact.

To avoid the theft of revalidation stickers, vehicle users are often advised not to stack up stickers on their vehicles. It is not uncommon for vehicle owners to get new registration stickers and simply stick them to the old stickers already on the plates making it easier for thieves to peel off. Vehicle users are therefore advised to peel off old stickers entirely, before putting new ones. One can also use a razor blade to make a cross sign on a sticker so that it falls apart once someone attempts to peel it off. In addition, vehicle users could guard against the theft of number plates by attaching them with quality screws, making them extremely difficult for a thief to unscrew.


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