MONTPELIER – After complaints from both law enforcement and residents across the state, the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles announced this week that they will now accept petroglyphs and mud paintings in place of visible tags on all motor vehicles in the state. The move came after traffic enforcement officers requested new tools to deal with unreadable license plates covered in mud and dirt.
Under the new system, drivers will not be required to clean their vehicle’s tags, as long as they are able to carve their plate number into the caked on mud. Also acceptable will be arranging the mud into the shape of the letters and numbers, as long as it is legible by police.
“This is going to help a lot,” said Barre resident Dewey Clay, who led the charge to have the policy changed after receiving three citations for obscured tags. “I tried to get the mud off my truck, but I didn’t have my tools with me. If they can’t fix up the roads, they need to change the rules about what happens after we drive on ’em. And now they have. I’ll just chisel my plate number into the back of my truck. There’s at least two inches of mud caked on at this point.”
Police remind Vermonters that, even if their plates are no longer required to be visible, they still must be able to read the number. “If we can’t tell the difference between your ‘5’ and your ‘S’ you’re going to get pulled over.”
Or we could all take a trip to South Canada, park on the curb, and leave our car unattended. Sooner or later a resident will come by and say, “Hey! Free dirt!” And your car will have legible plates again.
This is really going to boost their economy!