Is posting license plates on the forums a bad idea?

[ShadowsPapa]

Either way, going on to someone property is risk business. Instead of using firearms, I like to blast them with a fire extinguisher. By the time they attempt to get cleaned up, the Law has arrived.

LOL - love it. Creative, and you can't be tossed in jail in any state I know of for using a fire extinguisher to stop a thief.

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[ShadowsPapa]

I would honestly be less worried about having my plate in a picture than whatever else might be in the picture...

Several years back on a watch (i.e. timepiece) forum I am on, a guy posted a picture of a fully restored and very rare Rolex Submariner (it happened to be the same vintage as the one worn by Sean Connery in the first Bond flick) which was worth around 6 figures. He took the picture using his phone but the geo-tagging on his phone wasn't turned off. A couple days later, his house was robbed and the only thing taken was the Rolex.

It's arguable to think that it may be have been a coincidence; HOWEVER, posting photos that are geo-tagged certainly gives someone your location. I'm not really worried about someone seeing my license plate and thinking "Hey, there's a Jeep Gladiator somewhere in Arizona that I want to steal!" because chances are there are plenty of Jeep Gladiators closer to that person; but I certainly think you are running a huge risk posting photos of your newly installed Molon Labe decal while your COPO 1968 Camaro Z/28 Convertible sits in the background. Geo-tagged photo or not, license plate or not, that might make the thieves come out of the woodwork.

As my old man used to say "Keep the honest people honest". So I don't have an issue with putting the license plate in a photo on here, but I probably won't show anything that might be more desirable to steal than one of the 78,000 2020 Gladiators on the road.

No way I could have said it any better.........

 

[Rusty PW]

My license plate number showed up on a tee shirt. Have no idea of how. My one buddy bought the tee shirt and gave it to me.

 

[Rusty PW]

I'm not on FB, but my wife is. She also scans Zillow time to time checking the value of our house. Right after I remodeled the basement bathroom. She posted some pictures on FB of the bathroom. The pictures showed up on Zillow about 3 months later. Don't know how they got them.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I'm not on FB, but my wife is. She also scans Zillow time to time checking the value of our house. Right after I remodeled the basement bathroom. She posted some pictures on FB of the bathroom. The pictures showed up on Zillow about 3 months later. Don't know how they got them.

Bots.
That's one way.
Another is that there are connections between FB and a lot of other sites, information sharing and so on. If things are posted to FB in public mode, it could end up anywhere.
But there are bots that scour the internet looking for images, phrases, and more.

There's a lot of my pictures - pics I've taken of things I've worked on, restored, my cars, and more, out there. If you do searches for certain things, chances are one of my pics, especially of AMC stuff, will show up.

Go to Google and look for Eagle SX4 and there's a good chance you'll see my car.........
And I didn't even take, nor did I post, these pictures anywhere. I did a search for Eagle SX4 and Eagle SX/4 and poked around FB searching and these showed up.

 

[Rusty PW]

Bots.
That's one way.
Another is that there are connections between FB and a lot of other sites, information sharing and so on. If things are posted to FB in public mode, it could end up anywhere.
But there are bots that scour the internet looking for images, phrases, and more.

There's a lot of my pictures - pics I've taken of things I've worked on, restored, my cars, and more, out there. If you do searches for certain things, chances are one of my pics, especially of AMC stuff, will show up.

Go to Google and look for Eagle SX4 and there's a good chance you'll see my car.........
And I didn't even take, nor did I post, these pictures anywhere. I did a search for Eagle SX4 and Eagle SX/4 and poked around FB searching and these showed up.

I almost bought one of those when they first came out.

 

[Dryfly24]

With their tag number, I can find out every other piece of important information about their life, before I even start looking at Facebook.

I can see:

SSNs
Addresses, possibly going back decades.
Phone numbers, also possibly going back decades.
Email addresses.
IP addresses
Bankruptcies.
Lawsuits.
Criminal records.
Relatives, including distant, most often.
Utilities, utility bills.

....and more, so yes, hide your license plates online, always.

As a LEO yes you can do all those things, but if you do you’d better have a damn good reason and it‘d better be service related and have a direct nexus to something you are personally working on, or you’ll be looking for a new job so fast your head will spin. one of the quickest ways to become a former cop is to treat the system as your own personal repository for info.

Retired twenty three year career LEO. I’ve seen quite a few guys go down for trying to get a little personal info on the side for a variety of reasons. There’s a very low tolerance for that sort of thing. Especially these days when so many departments are under so much scrutiny.

 

[Rusty PW]

We have an 18 Touring model. Super fun car.

'11 Nismo. I do trackdays with it.

 

[HooliganActual]

'11 Nismo. I do trackdays with it.

FUN! MIne is an '06 Convertible. A buddy of mine races low level stock cars and one day we took the Z to the track. I definitely learned that street tires don't belong on a track, lol. I lost a lot of tread that afternoon.

 

[Blade1668]

No biggie for me, the Federal govt via OPM has done a stellar job at leaking all of my information over the last 25 years.

Either way, going on to someone property is risk business. Instead of using firearms, I like to blast them with a fire extinguisher. By the time they attempt to get cleaned up, the Law has arrived.

Hashtag # Me too.... on that. Heck it's not bad enough for OPM, DoD and the Dept of Agricultural has lost mine some jackass had all my units info then "lost Gov laptop" aka left it in a taxi.

FYI: if someone is misusing the NCIC, LETS or otherwise they can be not only fired but jail time. As in felony charges; fines or up to 10 years of graybar hotel.
But anyhow it's not a hard thing to do a internet search and pull someone's history. I've done a few traces in the past.

 

[Blade1668]

As a LEO yes you can do all those things, but if you do you’d better have a damn good reason and it‘d better be service related and have a direct nexus to something you are personally working on, or you’ll be looking for a new job so fast your head will spin. one of the quickest ways to become a former cop is to treat the system as your own personal repository for info.

Yep in past 17 years I seen a few that did some stupid things. One instance of secret service rapidly made a call to the dept. "Asking " why a certain vehicle and tag check was ran.... ???? from what I understand it didn't look like the political critters or family member in the car.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I almost bought one of those when they first came out.

I've had multiple Eagles, this is my second SX4 if you don't count the one I parted out and another I've giving away.
I had an 81 SX4 back in the later 80s, and an 84 wagon and a 1980 Limited wagon (plush - leather, etc.)
This one started out as a "fix it up and use it as a daily driver" car - and morphed into a show car after I started putting a ton of NOS parts on it and the body and paint turned out so well. My wife and the guy I know at a body shop shamed me into not driving it in the winter even though they are absolutely fantastic winter cars.

 

[Rusty PW]

I've had multiple Eagles, this is my second SX4 if you don't count the one I parted out and another I've giving away.
I had an 81 SX4 back in the later 80s, and an 84 wagon and a 1980 Limited wagon (plush - leather, etc.)
This one started out as a "fix it up and use it as a daily driver" car - and morphed into a show car after I started putting a ton of NOS parts on it and the body and paint turned out so well. My wife and the guy I know at a body shop shamed me into not driving it in the winter even though they are absolutely fantastic winter cars.

When I had my TransAm's. I was looking for a winter car. Be cause the TransAm's didn't see rain and snow. I ended up buying another 4x4 truck.

The one AMC I did own was a 71 Hornet with a 360 4 bbl with a 4 speed. I dropped a valve in it one night drag racing. Took that motor out and dropped in a 401 4bbl. It was a sleeper.

 

[813Jeeper]

LOL, one could actually describe my job as "professional stalker", but only when I'm paid for it, so everyone here is safe.

PI? If you are in the Tampa Bay area I have plenty of work for you.

 

[813Jeeper]

PI? If you are in the Tampa Bay area I have plenty of work for you.

IF NOT in my area, I need a new PI that does tenant screening. My favorite is to look up their fb profiles. So many tenants disqualified due to stupid shit they do/say on line.

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