South Carolina Woman Caught Using License Plate From Unmarked Police Car
One criminal bit off a bit more than she could chew when she tried to slap a stolen license plate on her car.
Luwanda Evelyn Dargan, 44, was driving in Monck’s Corner, South Carolina, when the police stopped her at the intersection of U.S. Highway 17 and Highway 6. She might have thought it a bit odd that the entire neighborhood was swarming with patrol cars. But when she was asked if she knew her vehicle had the wrong plates, she fessed up.
Dargan admitted she’d installed a license plate on her vehicle, knowing full well that it wasn’t hers. That was all the officers needed. They arrested the woman for a felony on the spot.
The license plates on her car had been stolen from an unmarked patrol vehicle. And not any patrol vehicle:It belonged to the Charleston Aviation Authority.
The saga of the Charleston Aviation Authority license plate
As soon as the sheriff’s deputies learned this plate had been stolen from an Aviation Authority patrol car, parked outside a residence, they pulled out all the stops. They may have suspected some complex heist, or even a terrorism plot. So authorities punched the plates into the National Crime Information Center database as stolen, and the chase was on.
When someone called in the plate on a car driving through Moncks Corner, police “saturated” the area. It wasn’t long until they found Dargan and pulled her over.
Her local charges include a second offense for driving an uninsured vehicle with a suspended license and receiving stolen property. The felony investigation into the stolen Aviation Authority license plate is ongoing.
