Southern California woman gets 15 traffic tickets after nationwide retailer sells novelty license plates similar to hers

Since May, a Southern California woman has found more than a dozen traffic tickets in her mailbox for violations she didn't commit.

The reason? A nationwide retailer was selling a novelty license plate resembling the vanity plate on her Dodge Magnum.

During that timespan, Suzi Kiefer has received 15 tickets for toll road violations, running red lights and speeding in places such as San Francisco, New Jersey, Illinois and Texas. 

The photos displayed alongside the tickets showed cars that clearly weren't her Dodge, leaving her the tedious task of disputing each violation.

"I started calling every single ticket and discussing with whoever answered the phone and explained that this is not my car," Kiefer said. "Clearly, it's not my Dodge Magnum. If you look at the photos, there are Mercedes, some are old Chevys."

After some digging, Kiefer connected the tickets to an interesting coincidence. For more than a decade, the Detroit-native's license plates have read "LUVSICK" on her Dodge, matching novelty plates from clothing company Broken Promises Co. Red font on the top of the white plate resembles the font used on California's plates.

The fake novelty plates, which are no longer available online, were also sold by nationwide retailer Zumiez. The retailer declined to comment on the matter.

The plates were removed from online stores after Kiefer's lawyer sent a cease-and-desist letter, she said. Other novelty plates reading "HELLBND" and "OMWB2U" are still available on the Broken Promises website.

The Department of Motor Vehicles said that "California law prohibits the sale of any product that could be used to defraud, misrepresent, or impersonate a vehicle's identity, such as a license plate," however, the agency admitted that it cannot enforce that law itself. 

A spokesperson for the California Highway Patrol said it cannot stop retailers from selling fake license plates as decor, but they aren't allowed to be used on vehicles.

Kiefer says she's been able to get her tickets wiped from her record so far, but she won't be satisfied until all novelty plates are taken off of the web.