--- title: "Chaos Reigns as Woman’s BLANK Vanity Plate Racks Up $40K in Fines Meant for Other People" date: "2026-11-10" modified: "2026-11-10" authors: - name: "Byron Hurd" job_title: "Editor" link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/byron-hurd.md" url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/chaos-reigns-as-womans-blank-vanity-plate-racks-up-40k-in-fines-meant-for-other-people" categories: - "News" --- # Chaos Reigns as Woman’s BLANK Vanity Plate Racks Up $40K in Fines Meant for Other People ![Blank License Plate]() You've probably heard stories about car owners coming up with slick [vanity plates]() that help them dodge automated tickets. Most of those stories are likely false, at worst, or embellished, at best. Remember the story of "Null?" Probably not—or if you do, you probably didn't hear it the way it really went down, which turned out to be the [exact opposite of a life-hack](). But what if your name just so happens to be "Blank," and you decide to be clever and choose that as your license plate? As New York resident Melanie Blank Brown [found out the hard way](), it's a one-way ticket to absolute legal chaos. Until a recent move, Blank had no idea what was brewing behind the scenes. When her registration was updated with her new address, the new entry for her license plate sequence was ingested by all of the local registration and ticketing systems, many of which had entries where the license plate number had been entered as—you guessed it—Blank. Immediately, she was told she had two outstanding tickets. That number eventually spiraled to more than 400 violations with fines totaling more than $40,000. And of course, because they had been issued all over the city, they couldn't be handled all at once. Brown had to endure [repeated visits to multiple judges]() in order to void all of the tickets. And to keep the pile from growing further, Brown surrendered her vanity plate. The NY State Department of Motor Vehicles has since removed it from the pool of potential vanity plates, lest somebody else feel clever enough to take a stab at the experience. According to the *New York Times*, Brown's new vanity plate reads "KNALB." Obviously, somebody likes to live dangerously. *Got a story tip? Let us know at tips@thedrive.com!* ## Author Byron is an editor at The Drive with a keen eye for infrastructure, sales and regulatory stories. He brings a light, punchy style to all of his content, believing that there's plenty out there to be laughed at—himself included. Born and raised in Maryland but now based just a stone's throw from Detroit, Byron is an auto enthusiast and generalist who enjoys building and tinkering with things of all kinds, from cars, computers and digital cityscapes, to the new garage that will soon house his fleet (a CT4-V Blackwing, a JK Wrangler and an NA Miata). Inspired by an early love of rollercoasters, Byron quickly caught the high-performance driving itch. He's been tracking and auto-crossing his cars since 2007. In his downtime, Byron enjoys reading, playing city builders, and studying the history of the Motor City. ### Author social links [Bluesky]() [Instagram]() [LinkedIn]() ## More - [ACLU Fighting for Tesla Driver’s Right to Keep ‘FKGAS’ Vanity Plate]() - [California Man’s Plot to Avoid Tickets With ‘NULL’ Vanity Plate Nets Him $12K in Fines]() - [‘PRIUSSY’ and Other Vanity Plates Illinois Rejected in 2025]() - [These Are the Funniest, Darkest, and Strangest Vanity Plates Oregon Rejected in 2021]() - [New Hampshire Governor OKs Mom’s ‘PB4WEGO’ License Plate After DMV Rejects It]() - [California Man Is Selling His ‘CASH’ Vanity Plate for $2,000,000]() - [Maine Is Taking Away Offensive Vanity Plates After Bringing Back Rules About the Whole Thing]() - [HOKTUAH, KDNAPPR: The Best and Worst Rejected Vanity Plates of 2024]()