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9:14am on Friday, 13th June, 2025:
Anecdote
When I was at school, my weekend job as was a bingo caller in an amusement arcade (Pastimes, now sadly demolished). The chap in charge of maintaining the arcade machines, Eric, had a Simca van. I don't know that I ever saw any other road vehicle made by Simca, and I'm not surprised because it was an ugly thing, but it was Eric's pride and joy.
Soon after getting it, he was pulled over by the police. Here's a 50-years-later paraphrasing of how I was told the conversation went.
Eric: Hello, officer, what's the problem?
Cop1: Your van has our registration number.
Eric: No it doesn't.
Cop1: Yes it does. ATB 18S, the same as ours. [Note: I don't recall the actual number, but it was something like this]
Eric: That's not right, it's ATB 19S
Cop1: No it isn't, look.
(Eric gets out of van and looks)
Cop1: See? ATB 18S, the same as ours.
(Eric looks)
Eric: That's not right.
(He goes round to the front of the van)
Eric: ATB 19S, yes, that's right.
Cop1: You have two different numberplates. That's against the law.
Cop2: Er, are you sure we're ATB 18S?
(He goes round to the back of the police car)
Cop2: Yes, it's ATB 19S.
Eric's van and the police car were indeed ATB 18S and ATB 19S, but each had one of the other's number plates. It turned out that they'd been manufactured in the same place and mixed up when they were sent to the dealers.
I'm sure this doesn't happen nowadays.
I was reminded of the story because my daughter wanted (and got) two identification labels on her newborn son, to make sure there was no chance of an accidental baby-swap.
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