Posted on 12/22/2008 6:18:59 AM PST by Red Badger
As a prank, students from local high schools have been taking advantage of the county's Speed Camera Program in order to exact revenge on people who they believe have wronged them in the past, including other students and even teachers.
Students from Richard Montgomery High School dubbed the prank the Speed Camera "Pimping" game, according to a parent of a student enrolled at one of the high schools.
Originating from Wootton High School, the parent said, students duplicate the license plates by printing plate numbers on glossy photo paper, using fonts from certain websites that "mimic" those on Maryland license plates. They tape the duplicate plate over the existing plate on the back of their car and purposefully speed through a speed camera, the parent said. The victim then receives a citation in the mail days later.
Students are even obtaining vehicles from their friends that are similar or identical to the make and model of the car owned by the targeted victim, according to the parent.
"This game is very disturbing," the parent said. "Especially since unsuspecting parents will also be victimized through receipt of unwarranted photo speed tickets.
The parent said that "our civil rights are exploited," and the entire premise behind the Speed Camera Program is called into question as a result of the growing this fad among students.
The Speed Camera Program was implemented in March of this year and used for the purpose of reducing traffic and pedestrian collisions in the county. Cameras are located in residential areas and school zones where the posted speed limit is 35 miles per hour or lower. A $40 citation is mailed to the owner of the car for violating the speed limit in these areas.
The Montgomery County Police said they have not seen or heard of this prank occurring but said they will keep an eye out for people committing the crime.
"I hope the public at large will complain loudly enough that local Montgomery County government officials will change their policy of using these cameras for monetary gain," the parent said. "The practice of sending speeding tickets to faceless recipients without any type of verification is unwarranted and an exploitation of our rights."
Edward Owusu, Assistant Principal at Wootton High School, said that he heard of local students pulling the prank when the school received a call from a parent informing them of its occurrence. "I have not heard of this happening among students at Wootton," Osuwu said. "It is unfortunate that kids have a lot of time on their hands that they can think of doing such a thing."
Montgomery County Council President Phil Andrews said that the issue is troubling in several respects. "I am concerned that someone could get hurt, first of all, because they are speeding in areas where they know speeding is a problem," he said.
Andrews also said that this could hurt the integrity of the Speed Camera Program. "It will cause potential problems for the Speed Camera Program in terms of the confidence in it," he said.
He said he is glad someone caught it before it becomes more widespread and he said he hopes that the word get out to the people participating in this that there will be consequences.
Gee, ya think?!? Maybe you should have thought of that before you allowed your government to install these cameras!
(snicker!) that’s naughty.
These pranksters are good, I mean, look at the level of detail to find similar cars to pull this off is great. I certainly hope that this could be the beginning of the end for those revenue generators.
Check this out:
Obviously these cops have never raised a teenager. If there’s a rule, they will find a way to either break it or use it to their advantage.
It’s a pretty clever prank, actually.
(snicker) What a clever idea. Fighting fascism brings out the best in all of us.
Hey Sparky, pull the cameras and have the cops keep an eye out for speeders instead. It will work a lot better.
That’s hilarious!
I would’ve done the same thing if I were a teenager.
Alas, I haven’t been a teenager since...
ugh
LMAO - and just as I was starting to lose faith in our next generation!
Awesome. These teens are not only exacting their revenge, but they are showing the stupidity of these government nanny cams at the same time. Brilliant and they probably don’t even get it.
OK, I’m laughing here (although I shouldn’t be.)
Very clever.
Oh, blah, blah, blah. You probably don't keep score at soccer games, either. "Exploitation of our rights" my ass...
I assume the buildings are connected under the street?............
If they'd have had cars?.............
So you support the use of speed cameras? I take it you have the constitution as a urinal liner, too, huh?
Speeding and red light cams are the epitome of rights exploitation. The last time I looked, as a citizen of these United States one is innocent until proven guilty. These cameras have been shown time and time again to be a usurpation of the right to Due Process.
I hope they dont’ get caught driving around with bogus license plates, that could get them in a load of trouble.
I would have an LCD screen the exact shape of a license plate holder with a program of different license plate numbers plus the original one, it can be configured to look precisely like a legal license plate with the right shading, at a command prompt like going through a red light it changes momentarily.
I know it would not arouse suspicion on a normal basis even at 5 feet away, it can be done.
I would dearly love to build this and sell it, call it patriotic dissent when the other plates belong to left wing liberals.
I would rather hope they would use the plates off the chief of police, mayor, and other local officials.
LOL!
Maybe everyone should use the plate number of the person that runs the Speeder Cam program. That would be a better use. Or how about the police chief or the governor?
If real officers were pulling over speeding violators rather than a machine billing the “car” owner (here, erroneously identified), there would be no success rate in this ploy.
Me too! THEN something would be done about it. Imagine the level of detective work to nab the kids, though?
Huh, wonder what the reaction would be if one of those teens brought some asprin to school and actually gave one to another student?
Remember once upon a time where schools would, like, insist upon basic moral standards from their students?
I know someone who repeatedly got tickets for a different make of car with a different plate that was repeatedly misread as being his plate number (like substituting an M for an N or something).
Even when there is no attempted fraud, there are still improper fines mailed out to unsuspecting car owners.
Mayor and City Council members and city manager come to mind..........
Yea, the consequences are the kids figured out the obvious flaw in the system, laziness. Their game would not work against a real cop.
Hee hee, that crosswalk prank was a good one, but no where near as good as what the seniors did at my duaghters high school last May. We have a 2 lane highway that the HS is on and about 2 miles up the road is a superWalmart. Every senior met at the Walmart and clogged up the highway by riding their bikes down to the school. The parking lot at the HS was full of bikes (big school so really a great visual). The principal was a jerk about the whole thing and issued tickets because the bikes didn’t have parking passes.
After seeing that, my rule when I become principal, is that senior pranks will be REQUIRED, but can not involve any damage to property or persons. Gotta have some fun at the end of the year.
This gives me hope for the next generation. They are going to need this attitude with the path our government is taking.
Was it in The UK that the kids stole the plate off of the speed warning sign trailer and put it on their car and ran through speed camera multiple times?
Good for them! They have the time to do this—and they use the system to get back at people they don’t like. All they need to do is pull over twice to attach and remove the “plate” after speeding by the camera. Unless the cops are sitting at the cameras watching for them, they’ll never get caught. And if the cops have time to sit near speed cameras, why have the speed cameras?
This is when of those difficult to be a parent issues. When you are supposed to be upset with your kid but want to give them a high five for their level of brillance......
“”It is unfortunate that kids have a lot of time on their hands that they can think of doing such a thing.” quote from the ass. principal..... insert eye roll
BRILLIANT!!!!
Exactly.
Oops... time to empty the drool bucket.
Was it in The UK that the kids stole the plate off of the speed warning sign trailer and put it on their car and ran through speed camera multiple times?
Now that would be a classic.
I dunno, but that sounds great!.........
Something about the “right to confront your accuser” in the court of law as well...
There have been accusations against local authorities of tweaking the cameras in such a fashion as to ‘catch’ more red light ‘supposed’ infractions. Why??? well to generate more revenue...the government has become a den of thieves.
As a graduation prank, the kids at my high school were able to get a VW Bug on to the roof of the school one night.
I’d be willing to bet it’s not true. This has all the markings of an urban legend. Come on- finding similar cars. Yeah, right.
Great next step.
Of course, the logical way to stop this would be to position police near the cameras and stop speeders and charge them for the phony plates.
That would be the lib/fascist way of handling this.
The freedom way of handling it is to remove the cameras.
I would think a smart teen would have done the Mayor’s car, maybe even the Chief of Police.
That would be a hoot.
I really hate speeding ... out on the highway where it actually kills people. But speed cams are nothing but a taxing device. Somebody ought to put up a website with these fonts and make it easy for all of us to play this game. Allow folks to publish the tag numbers of their city’s mayor and council people. Police chiefs.
Yeah! That’s the ticket.
What they were caught doing - in more than one municipality - was shortening the yellow-to-red light time.
These speed and red light cameras are wrong on so many levels. No free thinking, freedom lover could condone them.
Getting the LP of certain State Legislature’s and their big donors cars, a mask, and matching it with the same vehicle seems like a modern day “Tea Party” against the ignoramuses that elect these nanny/Big Brother Staters.
bump
They need to put RFIDs in the plates and ditch the cameras - just capture the RFID of the offending vehicle.
Of course, then the clever ones will come up with false RFIDs and anti-RFID reader ECM...
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