Police charged Victor with felony hit and run after he killed a 52 year old woman who was jaywalking and crossing a busy street at night during a rainstorm. The police probably would have been sympathetic – except he doesn’t have a driver’s license and fled the scene of the accident, and then hired an attorney the next morning.
It would be reckless to speculate if he is a legal resident of the United States.
Reckless, I tell you, reckless. Want to guess who he voted for in 2012?
no hablo ingles, gringo
I don’t know this individual, but there is also a category of legal visitor. Business travelers and vacationers are welcomed into the country and are not residents but visitors.
And need a driver’s license to drive.
Drivers licenses are recognized internationally. I have driven in a dozen countries using regular driver’s licenses issued by the state I lived in at the time.
Once I was driving from Paris to Amserdam and I was headed north, just on the outskirts of Brussels. I was in the left lane passing when one of the cars I passed on my right had a Pennsylvania license plate – no European plates at all. My guess was that it was someone from the US government visiting the EU. Money is no object to those folks since it is our money not theirs.
The Puerto Rico license plate also could have been a government vehicle.
BTW- Some of the European car companies have a deal where you can buy your new car from them and they will let you drive it in Europe for up to a month before they ship it to the states for you… saving you the cost of a rental on a European vacation. That didn’t explain the Pensylvania plates I saw in Belgium – the vehicle was a GM.
I saw something odd the other day – since you’re in the New York area may be more familiar. In a parking lot here, I spotted a car with Puerto Rico license plates. That made me curious.
Last time I checked, there is no land route connecting Puerto Rico to the mainland. Now I understand Puerto Ricans are US Citizens and have every right to live anywhere in the United States as long as they want. But they don’t have the right to live in another state and keep Puerto Rico plates on the car. For a PR properly licensed car to be on the mainland, it would have to be shipped – which is an expensive process. You wouldn’t do that for a three week vacation and unless it was an unusual car, I can’t imagine people bringing a car with them if they were moving here permanently
It costs around $1000 to ship a car from PR to the mainland.
http://www.horizonlines.com/service/where-we-ship/puerto-rico/vehicles
Any thoughts?
Back in 2005 I was selling a GMC van. One day a van load of 10 Mexicans (none of which who spoke much English) pulled up and handed me my asking price (in cash — the ‘leader’ of the group was carrying the largest wad of $100 bills I have ever seen in my life). Once I signed over the title one of the Mexicans went to the back of their van and pulled a license plate from the ‘collection’ of them in their vehicle and proceeded to slap it on my former van.
A couple of weeks later NBC ‘Dateline’ ran a news story about Mexican drug gangs buying up full size vans and turning them into drug smuggling vehicles. I suddenly wondered if I had unwittingly sold my old van into a life of service to criminals.
Perhaps the mainland US Puerto Ricans are just bringing a stack of plates with them as these Mexicans did?
Not sure about the drug part, but the bit about the plates being bogus sounds right. When I started looking into the subject, I quickly discovered license plates are sold in eBay for a few dollars.
If I was a policeman and pulled the car over to do a registration check and proof of insurance, it would add to the proof that I racially profile.
I think there is a good chance that van may still be in your name. The DMV encourages the parties of a private sale to sign over the title at the DMV so you can see them take the vehicle out of your name.
Don’t worry, I followed up with the DMV when I turned in my plates and made sure it was no longer in my name.
It is strange. In some states, you are required to remove the plates and turn them in to the DMV when you sell. In others, you are required to remove them and may use them on the new vehicle you purchase. … and in other states, it is illegal to remove the plate, the plates stay with the vehicle no matter how many times the vehicle is sold.
Connecticut forced me to mail the plates back to them from Illinois (to get off of the property tax roll).
When I was packing up from Illinois, I asked them about it. They don’t care. Just don’t sell them on eBay
I’ve seen Hawaiian plates from time to time.