Cherished Number Plates News

STOWLN personalised number plate stolen!

09 October 2008

Nathan Attwood was laughing when he bought the personalised number plate STOWLN for his prized Subaru Impreza WRX. However his tone changed when his $17,000 pride and joy was stolend from outside his home, right under his nose.

"A while back me and a group of friends were sitting around thinking up great names for personalised plates, and someone came up with STOWLN," Nathan, 24, told Sunday News. "When I got my car, I thought it would be hilarious to get the licence plate, so I bought it and put it on my car. It was so funny but I'm certainly not laughing now."

Subaru Impreza WRXs like Nathan's are ranked as the second-most-stolen car in New Zealand on the latest AA Insurance list of vehicles most likely to be taken by car thieves because of their speed and overall ‘image’. "When I bought the car, I knew it was a sought-after car (by thieves) but I got it alarmed and thought it was relatively safe”, he admitted.

"I had a $500 alarm system in there but somehow they managed to bypass it and take the car anyway," he said. Nathan said the irony of having a car with a number plate reading STOWLN pinched had not been lost on him, or his mates. "When it first got stolen, I was pretty angry but I can see the funny side of it now. I don't think I will ever live it down," he said.

While he missed driving his car, Nathan said the real killer was losing the licence plate, which had brought in a raft of offers from car-owners who were desperate to have his cherished plate. "The last one was about $1000 but I turned it down because I liked the plate so much," he said.

While he is doubtful his car will ever be returned, Nathan is certain that he will get the same plate and put it on a new car after he gets his insurance payout. "I have talked to all the right people and they said that I can get it re-printed, so it's not all that bad," he said.