In short, earlier this week, I lost my license plate. I’ve been using industrial Velcro for the past four months to pull the plate easily whenever I parked. During that time the Velcro has lost its strength. I know, I know, it’s illegal. But I park in Midtown every day, and there’s simply nowhere to park legally all day.

Sometime during the day on Wednesday, my plate disappeared. It could have been stolen, it could have fallen off. If this happens to you, here’s what you’re in for:

1. I went to the DMV on Thursday morning to report the plate missing and apply for a new one. I completed the paper-work, but two obstacles came up:

• I got lucky, I had recently had a new insurance card sent to me when I bought my second scooter. For whatever reason they gave me new cards for both. Apparently, you can only get a plate within 45 days of the date on the card. Fortunately I was 2 days short of the limit. If it had expired, I would have had to contact my insurance company and have them reissue a card before I could even go back to the DMV. About a week’s turnaround.

• Second, it turns out you need to complete a police report to record that the plate is missing. I had to spend an hour in the Midtown precinct near where I work to fill out the paperwork. I filed under stolen. Had I have filed under lost, who knows? Perhaps I would have been charged with an inadequately attached license plate.

2. I returned to the DMV this morning with my police paperwork in hand and got a new plate issued. An $11 fee. So at least the fee isn’t too bad. What was bad? In the time I was in the DMV, the cops closed off downtown for the Yankees parade. It took me 2 hours to fight may way up to Canal and back down the East side to get back to my scoot. Ugh.

3. I now have to contact my insurance company to let them know about my new plate, and have a new insurance card issued.

So there you have it. Will this stop me plate-pulling? Probably not. But clearly I need to think about a more secure method of attachment. Now you know the hassle you’re in for if you loose your plate.

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