SAN ANTONIO – A San Antonio man says he was the victim of a crime that has hit drivers in other parts of Texas in recent years.
Specifically, he says he was targeted by criminals who cloned his license plate.
The crime has been reported in Austin and Houston, where drivers have received unexpected bills for tollway fees.
According to the Austin Police Department, it is not a particularly common crime, though it has happened on occasion.
The department says the crime involves the creation of phony license plates using existing legitimate license plate numbers.
Criminals then put the counterfeit plates on cars they are driving.
Austin police said that in most cases, those phony plates are used by criminals trying to avoid paying toll fees or to cover up that they are driving stolen cars. The use of them for major crimes is rare, police said.
That fact, though, is little comfort for Armand McGowan, who recently found out he was a victim.
“The worry for me is, there’s no telling what they did with my plates, what crimes were committed with those plates,” he said.
McGowan, a military veteran who lives on the Northeast Side, said he was surprised when San Antonio police called him, telling him that officers found his custom-ordered Purple Heart license plates on a stolen car.
Meanwhile, McGowan still had both of his original plates attached to his truck.
McGowan said he has no idea how the criminals obtained his license plate number.
“If I had a normal license plate number, I could see maybe somebody made a mistake and printed multiple plates with the same one,” he said.
Because his license plate, which features all letters, was custom-ordered, he believes the scenario of it being a mistake is unlikely.
A police report from SAPD says when officers found McGowan’s plate attached to the stolen car, they also found a license plate stolen from someone else inside the vehicle.
To avoid becoming a victim of this type of crime, Austin police recommend that drivers refrain from posting photos of their cars and plates online; attach their plates using locking screws; and monitor all tolls and citations.
Anyone who becomes a victim of license plate cloning should report it to police right away.