It’s amazing how often government stands in the way of helping others. Today, while I was returning from the Tempe Post Office, with my 19-month-old grandson in his car seat, I drove past a license plate in the middle of a neighborhood street about two blocks from my house. I turned around and went back and retrieved it. The two screws that had fastened it to the plate holder were on the pavement along with broken plastic particles from the bracket for the screws to engage.
“Ah, I will do a good deed,” I thought. “I will take it home, call the Arizona Motor Vehicle Divsion, tell them I found a plate, give them the plate numbers. They’d contact the owner to come and get it. Probably a car owner in the neighborhood. ” Over the years I have found probably a half-dozen wallets plus ATM cards left behind — and returning things to their grateful owners is a great feeling. The Golden Rule at work.
Of course, it works best when government and law enforcement are not there to gum up the works. Government long ago lost common sense.
Well, the DOT employee quickly told me I could take it to an MVD office. She would not contact the owner of Arizona plate 527-DTV (expiration Aug. 09 ) to come get it from me. “But wouldn’t that owner like to have a plate back? It probably just fell off this morning. It would save that person a lot of trouble. That’s how I would like things handled. I have no mischievous motives.”
“Nah, it doesn’t work that way,” she said. Of course, the government that is always trying to protect us would never think about letting me know the owner. So much like the extremeness and silliness in the enforcement of the medical law known as HIPPA (the Health Insurance and Portability Act) that wouldn’t allow you know Grandma is being treated for bed sores or a hangnail. Privacy laws gone amuck.
THE MVD lady said the owner would probably contact them and get issued new plates — for which the state would reap revenue. If the owner got his/her own plate back, that owner might be spared the fee. So I have a nice slab of aluminum and two sturdy screws. If you know your neighbor lost a license plate in Tempe near Broadway Road and McClintock Drive Thursday or Friday and hasn’t contacted the state folks yet, maybe I can help. Again it is plate 527-DTV, expiration August 2009. I am considering taking it back to the spot where I found it and lean it agains a light pole, as people often do with snappy hubcaps.
