Dallas, TX
On Your Side: Dallas woman’s vanity license plate nearly lands her in jail
Dallas woman’s vanity plate nearly lands her in jail
There are more than 500 specialty license plate designs available to Texas drivers, but just one mishap could have landed a Dallas woman in jail.
DALLAS – There are more than 500 specialty license plate designs available to Texas drivers, but just one mishap could have landed a Dallas woman in jail.
She says the vanity plates she purchased were already in the system as “stolen.”
Christy Wiggins considers her Mercedes AMG GT53 to be her dream car, but there was just one thing missing.
“I’ve always had custom plates,” Wiggins said.
She logged on to MyPlates.com, the website which serves as the “personal plates marketing vendor for the State of Texas.”
The Texas DMV website notes that “all custom plates must be approved” by the state agency.
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Christy wanted a plate that said ‘Petronas,’ after the Mercedes Formula 1 racing team.
“I had to try a lot of different variations of the word before I found one that was available,” she said.
She landed on ‘PTRONUS.’
The plates were approved by the Texas DMV, and she paid $300 to get them.
“The county registered these plates to my car,” Wiggins said.
But this is where things get bumpy.
Her car, with the custom places, was stolen from her garage after what she admits was a lapse in good judgment.
“My garage door was open, the key was in the car,” Wiggins said.
According to a summary of the police report she filed, which was provided to FOX 4 by Dallas Police, the car was recovered early the next morning.
“It was taken to the city lot and I had it towed from there to Mercedes to wait for new keys to be ordered and delivered,” Wiggins said.
The car sat parked on the street, facing the wrong direction, when a Dallas police officer on patrol took notice.
“He pinged my plate and ran it through the system, and it came back as a stolen plate,” Wiggins explained.
You might be thinking, that makes sense, her car had just been stolen, but it wasn’t the Mercedes that was flagged.
It was a Dodge Charger stolen in 2021 that had the same custom plates Christy just bought from the state, despite police saying those plates were still assigned to the Charger and still in the system as stolen.
“He said, ‘Yes ma’am, if you were to drive your car away from Mercedes with this plate on it you would be pulled over and arrested at gunpoint. Your car would be seized, and you would likely be thrown in jail.’ I’m about to throw up at this point,” Wiggins remembered.
Christy searched online and found a social media post from when the Dodge was stolen and then abandoned after it wrecked.
The police report summary provided to FOX 4 by DPD confirms the incident.
“If this can happen to me, it can happen to anyone. When you buy a license plate from MyPlates, you think it’s all connected. They’re the only plate company you can buy them from,” said Wiggins.
We turned to the Texas DMV to ask how a plate which shows up stolen in the system could be approved for sale.
While the spokesperson for the agency declined to speak to FOX 4 on camera he did send a statement via email.
“The department confirmed the license plates were stolen on November 12, 2021, and recovered on November 13, 2021. The license plates were issued to the new applicant in April 2023, which is after they were no longer reported stolen,” reads the statement from Adam Shaivitz with the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles. “The department cannot speak to why law enforcement would treat the license plates as stolen after having been recovered.”
“I take the word of the officer. If he says this is what’s in the system then I believe that,” said Wiggins.
The same officer helped Christy navigate the Downtown Crime Unit for the Dallas Police, who she says also processed a special request to remove her plates from the stolen Dodge.
She dropped off cookies to thank the officer while driving very carefully to the destination.
“I’m still a little weary. I watch my surroundings and I don’t speed because I don’t want to get pulled over,” said Wiggins.
MyPlates would not comment on why a set of plates would be both for sale and flagged as stolen. But after we reached out to them, the company did refund Christy’s $300 and offered her a new set of vanity plates at no cost.
At four times the size of Highland Park Village, there’s nothing small about the idea of turning around and tuning up Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza.
As of Friday morning, Ray Washburne, president of HP Village Management, planned to have power washers cleaning the grounds of the shopping and office center built more than 100 years ago.
An affiliate of HP Village Management officially closed on the Kansas City property with 970,000 square feet of commercial space spread across 15 blocks on June 28.
Country Club Plaza’s notoriety in the real estate community is that it was one of the first planned suburban shopping centers to accommodate shoppers arriving by car.
In the Midwest, it has served as a destination for out-of-town and out-of-state shoppers, much like Highland Park Village has, through the years, according to Washburne.
The opportunity to purchase the aging property was first brought to Washburne when he was speaking at an Urban Land Institute conference last May. Someone from investment manager Nuveen, coincidentally the lender on Highland Park Village, asked him if he’d be interested in another big project.
More than $100 million was spent on the updates to Highland Park Village. Washburne said that much more than $100 million will be spent on the Missouri complex, with Nuveen remaining involved.
Given Country Club Plaza’s size, it’s been envisaged into separate districts with a contemporary fashion district, a food and beverage district, and a luxury and designer district.
It’s similar to the retail balance that’s been struck between Dallas’ Knox Street, with which an affiliate of HP Village Management has also been involved, and Highland Park Village, Washburne said.
Currently, there are Tiffany & Co. and Coach stores at Country Club Plaza, but Washburne said there have been conversations with a lot of luxury retailers.
“They’ve seen what we’ve done [with Highland Park Village], and that’s very important,” he said. “There’s a trust factor with the tenants as there is a trust factor that they come in and they’re going to be in with someone who’s taking a long-term approach. We’re not going to put lipstick on it, paint a few storefronts, put a couple tenants in and sell it.”
Washburne said the first priority is security.
“We spend four times as much on security in the Village than they do, and they’re four times the size we are,” said Washburne.
Kansas City, like the Dallas area, has been tapped as a site for FIFA World Cup games in 2026, including a quarterfinal.
It’s a milestone that makes improvements at Country Club Plaza all-the-more critical without forgoing a sense of place.
“The pixie dust on this stuff is really creating an authenticity and uniqueness to the center. What we did at the Village is lead with a food and beverage scene that’s local. Second, you also have to have a number of local retailers,” said Washburne.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Multiple Kansas City architects have been engaged to help with an updated master plan for the Edward Delk-design buildings. Baroque revival and Moorish revival styles were utilized to mimic the architecture of one of Kansas City’s sister cities, Seville, Spain.
Leasing efforts are being led by Stephen Summers, whose family co-owns HP Village Management.
The Dallas Mavericks have made their first move of free agency and it’s not the name some expected. While the Mavs have discussions with Klay Thompson and Derrick Jones Jr., they’ve decided to go ahead and pull the trigger on a 3&D wing.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Mavericks are signing New Orleans Pelicans’ forward Naji Marshall to a 3-year, $27 million deal. It was reported that Marshall could become a target for Dallas if they couldn’t come to agreements with Jones Jr., who remains a free agent. Marshall will fit into part of Dallas’ mid-level exception.
READ MORE: Dallas Mavericks Free Agent Target Plans To Sign With Orlando Magic
Marshall, a 26-year-old from Xavier, has spent all four years of his career with New Orleans. He averaged 7.1 PPG and 3.6 RPG as part of a deep Pelicans team and shot a career-high 38.7% from 3-point range. He has good size at 6’7″ and 220 pounds and offers defensive versatility.
Depending on the structure of his deal, Dallas will still have around $4 million left in their midlevel exception. It’s not certain if Derrick Jones Jr., who Nico Harrison called their priority 1A and 1B this offseason, would be willing to take a 1+1 deal worth the remaining of the exception to return. They’re also still working out a possible sign-and-trade to acquire Klay Thompson. If that falls through, they could work out a sign-and-trade for Marshall if they needed to.
Welcome to Dallas Naji Marshall. He should have an easier opportunity than ever to get his shot off getting open looks from Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving. Signings cannot become official until July 6th.
READ MORE: Warriors’ Klay Thompson To Meet With Dallas Mavericks Among Other Teams In Free Agency
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