Sharpie counterfeit job on expired tags gets ‘A for effort’ — and a ticket, WA cops say 

A Washington motorist’s “on point” coloring skills were to no avail when a state trooper spotted something off about a vehicle registration tag, a state patrol post on Twitter says.

“Sneaky, sneaky!!” troopers wrote on Twitter. “This driver was issued a $228 ticket for their expired vehicle tab. Their coloring skills are kind of on point but not good enough to sneak past a Snohomish County Trooper!”

The driver had apparently used a black felt pen to change the 2018 tag to read 2019, KSDK reported. But the altered tag was not reflective, nor did the driver succeed in obliterating the green color of the original 2018 tag.

“It’s second nature for troopers to pick up those little things,” said Trooper Heather Axtman, a Washington State Patrol spokesperson who posted Thursday to Twitter about the incident, The Seattle Times reported.

A trooper spotted the counterfeit tags on a vehicle on Interstate 5 in Lynnwood, north of Seattle, KSDK reported.

Axtman’s Twitter post included the hashtags “a for effort” and “nice try.”

“It’s one of the more creative ones I’ve seen,” she said, The Seattle Times reported. “It was kind of an ‘A’ for effort, but why don’t you just go get the tab?”

“Dishonesty never wins,” read one response to the Twitter post, though others also took the opportunity to complain about Washington’s vehicle registration fees.

This story was originally published September 8, 2019 at 11:02 AM with the headline "Sharpie counterfeit job on expired tags gets ‘A for effort’ — and a ticket, WA cops say ."