A running debate about whether putting a cheeky message instead of a license plate on your car, because it looks much cooler, raged online last week until the police decided it was an argument they could win.
A Bangkok car which had been spotted with the message “Ask me if you wonder” instead of a rear license plate started the flame war over whether it’s more important to look cool or abide by the law.
While many took to Facebook to condemn the car’s owner, obviously, a group of netizens argued there’s no need to use a boring old license plate: because it looks cool.
“I don’t like putting on my license plate either,” one user wrote. “I like it this way. It looks cooler, I think.”
And to fuel the keyboard rivalry, the car owner had the nerve to defend himself under a post on the “We love police checkpoints” page.
“To the clueless morons who attack me in comments: This car is mine,” Facebook user Arm Thekop claimed in a message. “If I don’t go too far from my home, I wouldn’t put on a license in the back, but if I do, I always put it on the rear window. I have gone through many police stops, and they just said I should put a license plate in the back. Got it? Those of you with brains of dogs?”
So how “far” is “not far” from his home? And more importantly, how did he get through the police stops?
Apparently Bangkok police officials decided this was not a question to be decided by aethetic preference, as the Metropolitan Police Bureau jumped into the fray to settle the argument.
Sharing a photo on its Facebook page, the city police agency explained police would be sent to arrest the driver at the privacy of his own home if he keeps doing this.
“According to Sec. 11 of the traffic code, registered cars must display one license plate at the front and one at the back,” an official wrote in the caption. “The plates must not be hidden or covered by any signs or materials. Violators will be fined THB2,000 maximum. So, it’s clear you have to put two plates on, and if you can read Thai and continue put the ‘Ask me if you wonder’ message instead of your license plate, you will be prosecuted at home.”
Of course their Facebook post may not get the attention of people like Mr. Ask Me, or maybe they just won’t care, because how cool your car looks is certainly more important than traffic regulations and safety.
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Photo: We love checkpoints
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