‘Beautifully written’ California license plate on stolen car leads to woman’s arrest

Driver busted with homemade license plate

A driver in the Bay Area arrested a suspected car thief after seeing their forged license plate written in black marker. The expiration date on the fake plate had also passed.

BENICIA, Calif. - A California woman was arrested after she was caught with a handwritten, fake license plate on the back of a suspected stolen car.

It happened Friday morning in Benicia, located about a half-hour’s drive north of San Francisco.

According to police, the suspect, 38-year-old Angel Rachiene Bolton, wrote the license plate numbers with a thick black marker on what appeared to be printer paper and taped it to the back of a silver Kia Rio LX, which was reportedly stolen out of Alameda.

"We know we are not superheroes, but just FYI this is NOT a way to get one over on us," the Benica PD wrote on Facebook.

A woman was arrested after she was spotted with a handwritten fake license plate in Benicia, Calif. / Benicia PD Facebook

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The numbers on the forged license plate didn't quite size up, however, because Bolton apparently ran out of room trying to squeeze everything into the small space.

To make things worse, the counterfeit plate’s tags were expired, reading "JAN 2023" where a real registration sticker would be.

"Pro tip: At least make the "registration" current," the Benicia PD joked.

Police arrested Bolton and charged her with felony possession of a stolen vehicle and misdemeanor possession of "unlawful paraphernalia," according to arrest records.