Custom number plates on cars and bikes are popular among many. At times, the combination of letters and numbers means something to the owner while it's fun for the rest of them. They don't even mind paying extra for such number plates. In Australia, although custom number plates are regulated, someone got his hands on one with X32 22A written on it.
It means nothing, right? Read it again. Still nothing? Try reading it backward. Got it now? It reads 'A** Sex'. Now you cannot unsee it. In Australia, one can get a custom number plate with up to seven numbers but it cannot be sexually explicit and offensive.
But the motorist somehow managed to get past the transport department's scrutiny. It seems like many didn't notice the uniqueness of the X32 22A number which is registered to a Holden Commodore in Western Australia. A Reddit user first posted an image of the number plate with a mirror image and it got over 24,000 upvotes and hundreds of comments. And since going viral, the number has been searched Personalized Plates websites in Australia over a hundred times.
One user said, "That's certainly a good reason to move into the slow lane when you see this guy pulling up behind you."
Another hoped it was not reported. "Lol, hope they don't get reported and they get to keep it. We need more fun in the world,"
COVID 19 Number Plate
Last week, another number plate went viral. Someone managed to get a personalized number plate with COVID 19 written on it. A BMW 5 Series car with that number was parked at an Adelaide airport "for months". The number was issued in March in South Australia.
An Adelaide motorist Dan Parfitt told ABC News that he first noticed the car on March 24 on Burbridge Road, West Beach. "It obviously stood out straight away. I took a Snapchat video of it and never thought of it again," he said.
However, since it went viral, the plate was reported to South Australia's Department for Planning, Transport, and Infrastructure (DPTI) and was blocked immediately. DPTI, in response, issued an apology for "any inconvenience caused".
"In line with our policies for the approval of number plates, we have reviewed this plate and requested that the number plate be surrendered to the department. It appears the number plate has unfortunately passed our approval process," the DPTI said in a statement.
The agency also confirmed that the number plate had been blocked and "it will not be permitted to be registered going forward".
However, in Australia's Northern Territory, plates with COVID 19 written can be approved. A spokesperson of NT's Motor Vehicle Registry said that the "combination wasn't considered offensive but rather a name of a medical condition".
But in Queensland, the term has been blocked. "Due to the significant health and economic impacts of COVID-19, this combination would not be available for sale as a number plate in Queensland," Queensland's Department of Transport and Main Roads spokesperson said.
In the U.S., Belgium and many other European countries motorists have registered COVID-19 and Coronavirus related number plates.
So far, the disease has taken over 610,000 lives and infected over 14 million worldwide. In Australia, out of 12,428 confirmed cases of COVID-19, 126 have died.
