'Ghost car' loophole makes criminals hard to track

It’s a loophole that creates what’s known as a ‘ghost car.’

WRAL 5 On Your Side learned it’s a problem that law enforcement, the DMV and lawmakers are trying to fix with a proposal to overhaul the temporary tag system.

Deputies said license plate readers don’t pick these tags up well. And they don’t connect back to a database like permanent plates do.

It’s a slow, manual process to connect the numbers on a temporary tag to a person.

Our team learned temporary tags were involved in a chase in May 2022 that ended with a Wake County Sheriff’s Deputy being injured after crashing his cruiser into a tree in north Raleigh.

The deputy was after a white Mercedes with a temporary tag that was reportedly stealing lawn equipment and power tools in nearby neighborhoods.

"It had a paper tag, no information. Possibly, most likely, fictitious," said Deputy Quaid Aponte.

A plate reader can immediately pull up information from a permanent license plate like the driver’s license of the owner, registration, insurance and whether the plate belongs on that car.

The same isn’t true for temporary tags. When a dealer gives a 30-day tag to someone who buys a car, it’s manually logged in a book and eventually that book is turned over to the NCDMV.

"The DMV system does not have any way of tracking paper tags for the most part," Aponte said.

After the May 2022 chase and crash, the suspects got away and were never charged in this case.

"Things could have been handled differently, possibly, if we had information on that vehicle," Aponte said.

There have been other recent problems and crimes involving 30-day tags.

A viewer told WRAL 5 On Your Side they were nearly run off the road by a reckless driver with a paper tag.

The NC Turnpike Authority says if the registered owner of a vehicle is not associated with the temporary license plate, they are not able to send drivers a toll bill.

Temporary tags have also been targeted by thieves.

"We actually had a burglary of a dealership, and during that burglary 75 tags or so were stolen," Aponte said.

An incident report showed another dealership in Raleigh had half a dozen tags stolen in June.

"Folks are changing them, letting them go beyond the allowed amount of time," DMV Commissioner Wayne Goodwin told 5 On Your Side about 30-day tags.

Goodwin says many problems involving these tags could be solved with a new system. Part of a bill in the North Carolina Legislature would allow dealerships to print temporary tags on demand that would immediately trace back to a database.

"If someone who has one of these tags is zig-zagging around or driving dangerously or recklessly, law enforcement, including DMV, will know who that person is," Goodwin said.

The details of how this new system would work are still being ironed out, but Goodwin tells us the new temporary tags wouldn’t be something you could print at home and get away with.