The internet was abuzz yesterday after images circulating on social media showed two identical cars bearing the exact same license plate number getting pulled over Shanghai.
The cars were spotted at the intersection of Nanchang Lu and Shaanxi Nan Lu, by the IAPM Mall, on Wednesday at around noon. The two black Mercedes G65 AMG vehicles had the exact same license plate number, BRN108.
Someone's got some explaining to do...
According to local media reports, police had initially pulled over the problematic car, which they suspected to have a fake license. They had supposedly been tracking it for some time.
Police said the cars were purchased in June and July respectively. After tracking the plates, they noticed that two cars with the exact same license number were driving in completely different places around the city. One car was often seen in Jiading and Putuo districts, while the other usually traveled around Xuhui. Sometimes they were even spotted in the same place.
The driver of the suspicious car, Zhai Guangzhi, purchased the popular luxury vehicle from an agency for RMB350,000, which included the plate and license number. As the deal was almost too good to be true — the G65 AMG model normally sells for a staggering RMB3.8 million in China — he said he suspected something was up with the car. But because it was so cheap and going for less than a tenth of the retail price, he went ahead and bought it anyway.
Zhai points to his counterfeit license plate number.
After stopping Zhai, police then used the plate number to look up the driver of the other car, who they called up and asked to come over to iapm. Images of the two vehicles parked next to each other soon started going viral online.
As soon as the long lost twin brother vehicles were reunited, the driver of the original car recalled that he had lost his license plate in June after renting it out to a friend. He had to go to the police to get another copy, though he had no idea how exactly the identical plate ended up on the second car.
Police say that they've busted at least 10 "twin cars" recently, using reports of lost plates and documentation from reissue claims to help gather evidence. Meanwhile, both cars have been temporarily detained and are currently under investigation.
A similar incident happened down in Guangdong earlier this year, when a woman was busted for buying a fake plate from Taobao.
[Images via Shanghai Daily, Dashenwang // h/t Rob Jameson]
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