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In 1979, Californian Robert G. Barbour, a West Los Angeles sailing enthusiast and manufacturer of marine equipment and industrial components, put out a request for personalized plates that would read “SAIL” or “BOAT.” The California Department of Motor Vehicles form had a space for a third choice, and he said he didn’t have one—so he wrote “NO PLATE” on that line. Unfortunately, his first two choices weren’t available, so the third choice was accepted and he was given his “NO PLATE” plates, the beginning of a series of inconveniences.
“At first I was mad that they were messing it up and not understanding what I meant,” said Barbour, 39. “But then I realized how original the plates were.”
It was four weeks later that Barbour received a notice from the San Francisco Municipal Court warning him that an illegal parking ticket was outstanding.
“I knew I hadn’t been up there,” Barbour recalls, “so I called. I asked them to look at the ticket and describe the car. Sure enough, it was a different car.”
A few days later, dozens of overdue notices began arriving from all over the state. That’s when Barbour says he realized that law enforcement officers were writing “no plates” on citations for vehicles parked illegally without license plates.
He says the information was then entered into a Department of Motor Vehicles computer—and if the ticket remained unpaid, the computer would provide Barbour’s name and address.
Over the next six or seven months, Barbour estimates he received about 2,500 such notices. The highest percentage came from the San Francisco area; the smallest from Los Angeles.
"I had written to the DMV two or three times to tell them it was a real problem. They said, 'Just change your plates.'" But by then, Barbour said, "I had really grown to like my plates. I wanted to keep them and let the DMV adjust their procedures a little bit. I guess it had something to do with the way I am.
Launching the Paper Campaign
Determined to untangle the bureaucratic mess he found himself in, Barbour decided to write a form letter to explain the NO PLATE situation. Each time he received a notice in the mail, he would send the letter. In most cases, he received a response saying the case was closed.
In a few cases, however, Barbour said he was asked to appear before a judge to explain himself.
"So," Barbour said, "I would write them another letter saying, 'No, it's your mistake; look at the ticket and look at the description of the car.”
He never had to go to court.
Barbour, who is married with two children, said his secretary helped send out the form letters, and the postage over the years has totaled about $300 or $400.
“What I’m really afraid of is that one day someone with the same type of car I have, with no license plate, is going to get a ticket. Then I won’t be able to prove it wasn’t me.”
Finally, about two years after this whole situation started, the DMV issued a notice to law enforcement asking them to use the word “none” instead of “no plate” on citations, Barbour said.
“As soon as they did that, the tickets slowed down to a trickle. For the last two years, I haven’t gotten more than five or six tickets a month.” He attributes them to officers and clerks who are unfamiliar with the current process.
Gary Taulbee, systems coordinator for the San Francisco Municipal Court Traffic Division, said, “They probably did it because we thought no one would be crazy enough to have plates that said NO PLATES. We just hope no one comes up with plates that say NONE.”
In the meantime, Barbour has become something of a celebrity with traffic cops around the city. When he was pulled over 10 months ago, Barbour said he was concerned because his registration wasn’t up to date.
“The officer said he didn’t really care,” Barbour recalled. "He had heard about my car and my license plates and just wanted to have his picture taken next to them. He pulled a camera out of his patrol car and I took the picture for him." So now, after living with his plates for seven years, Barbour looks at them with a mixture of fondness and amusement.
"Even now, when people see them, I get a reaction. Some go crazy. One guy, walking across a crosswalk, yelled, 'What kind of stupid plates are these?' They're either plates or they're not plates. You can't have a plate that says NO PLATE. Then he banged on my car.
"Still other people think they're cool because they're so unusual. And that's what I like about my plates," Barbour said with a smile.
"They're unique - they're originals."
A story that would repeat itself in 2019 when a motorist ordered the NULL plate and would experience the same misfortune as Barbour 30 years earlier.
In Algeria, owners of license plates issued by Customs bearing the words "WITHOUT NUMBER" have not experienced similar problems.
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