The Weyburn Police Service conducted a traffic stop last Monday after a hit via an automatic license plate reader. The reason for the stop, though, caught the driver completely by surprise and resulted in a further investigation.  

Deputy Police Chief Brent VanDeSype explained the hit on the ALPR indicated the license plate was stolen. 

“They conducted a traffic stop on that vehicle, and after speaking with the driver, they learned that the stolen license plate was actually swapped on that vehicle by someone else for the proper plate,” VanDeSype said. The driver was completely unaware of the sequence of events that ultimately resulted in getting pulled over.  

The deputy chief pointed out that something like this is often because a suspect is hoping to not get caught with a stolen vehicle.  

“This could be an incident where someone, they want to swap license plates so that if they’re driving a stolen vehicle – in other words, the bad guy’s driving a stolen vehicle – they'll swap out a license plate for one that’s not currently reported stolen, so then it’s less likely that that vehicle will be stopped.” 

The stolen license plate was seized, and the matter is still under investigation.  

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