Once upon a time, not too long ago, license plate flippers were a thing of James Bond movies and Cold War espionage stories. Nowadays, anyone willing to depart a few hundred bucks can have a device that flips licenses plates fitted to their car.

Like the Russian (?) Moldavian owner of this white Lexus LS 460 who was filmed at a stop light magically switching his rear plate from numbers and letters to a dark shade of grey emptiness. With all the things we’ve seen in dash-cam videos, we dare not to ask why…

Such devices are sold on the web, though, whether they’re illegal or not, depends on local laws. In Texas, for example, the house passed a “Flipper Bill” in May. Under the bill, the possession of a license plate flipper is a class B misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail, while distributing or selling these devices is a class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail.

You can see how these license plate flipping devices work in the following videos.

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