It’s an issue you don’t really think about until you have to renew them: license plate renewal stickers.
Overland Park resident Angela Perez says she’s had her stickers stolen on multiple occasions.
“I'd go get it and have to come back three days later. I mean literally three days after we got the first one, they took it,” Perez said. “I mean I was just in tears I was so aggravated because I can't afford it. That's not something I can afford to do, you know?”
Overland Park Police say it’s misdemeanor theft and people caught stealing the stickers will be charged.
“You see it all throughout the KC metro area, several departments have ran into this type if theft,” Overland Park officer, John Lacy said. “We do charge on those all the time. There's no warning or anything like that. If you take a sticker off a vehicle, we're going to charge you.”
In the state of Kansas, all stickers will have the license plate numbers on them.
In Missouri, you have the option to get an enhanced security tab, where stickers will show your license plate number as well, but only in select locations.
“A lot of times, officers do run license tags at random. If it comes back a 2016, but we see a ‘17 sticker on there, we're going to stop that vehicle,” Lacy said.
If you feel someone has stolen your tags, call police.
“If someone says hey look, it's been stolen, we can run their license tag and show that it's current,” Lacy said.
Police recommend getting a sharp object, such as a razor blade, and making an X on the sticker, making it harder for someone to steal.
It's also recommended to peel off any old stickers before replacing the new one and getting a license plate cover to protect those tags.
