It’s basically OK, right? Cops pull over suspect with hand-drawn license plate

Art class meets the open road.

California Highway Patrol officers in Merced were taken aback during a recent traffic stop when they noticed a license plate that looked straight out of a sketchbook.

Upon closer inspection, it became clear that the California plate was a hand-drawn imitation, rather than an official DMV-issued tag, the CHP said Friday on Facebook.

“We’ll give this driver points for creativity,” the department wrote.

The driver explained to officers that they had lost the original license plate and resorted to creating a makeshift version. While the creativity was noted, the homemade plate was not legally acceptable.

“If your plates are lost or stolen, you can easily get replacements through the DMV instead of breaking out the art supplies,” the post added.

California law says it is illegal to forge, alter, counterfeit, or display a license plate that is not officially issued by the DMV. This includes hand-drawn or improvised plates intended to substitute for a legitimate registration tag.

Violations of this law are considered a “wobbler” offense, meaning they can be charged as either a misdemeanor or a felony depending on the circumstances and the driver’s criminal history.

If charged as a misdemeanor, penalties may include up to one year in county jail, fines up to $1,000, and possible probation. Felony charges carry more severe penalties, including 16 months to three years in county jail and fines up to $10,000.

The Facebook post garnered over 5,000 reactions and nearly 500 comments from fellow users with a slew of follow-up questions.

“Did they get a ticket?” That’s pretty funny,” one person asked, although the answer to this specific case is unclear.

“Ok but bigger question. Say you lose your plate, in the process of getting them reordered and mailed to you, can you still drive the vehicle? Cause I mean this poor dude was just trying to do what he needed too and decided to improvise,” someone else claimed.

Other eagle-eyed viewers needed to discuss the spare tire sitting on the trunk of the car in the photo shared by officials.

“So we not gone talk about the tire being held in place by what looks like a seat belt,” one commented.

“Are we just going to ignore the spare strapped to the trunk lid,” another echoed.

A third person laughed, “Probably would've gotten away with it too if not for the tire.”