Editing 1105: License Plate

{{comic
| number    = 1105
| date      = September 7, 2012
| title     = License Plate
| image     = license_plate.png
| titletext = The next day: 'What? Six bank robberies!? But I just vandalized the library!' 'Nice try. They saw your plate with all the 1's and I's.' 'That's impossible! I've been with my car the whole ti-- ... wait. Ok, wow, that was clever of her.'
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] has obtained a new {{w|Vehicle registration plate|license plate}}. The license plate number one receives is often the next in sequence, available at the time and place of registration. However, in many localities, for an additional fee one can select their own "personalized" license plate number (called a {{w|vanity plate}}), subject to certain criteria, and availability.

In this comic, Cueball has elected to purchase the personalized license plate number "1I1-III1" or "one, letter I, one, dash, letter I, letter I, letter I and one". He believes the ambiguity between the letter I and the digit 1 on the plate will make it very difficult for anyone to correctly identify his vehicle if he commits a crime. Some localities have more distinct "1" and "I" characters in their license plate font than others, but often when a crime is committed witnesses only has a short time to look at the plate, and will then be confused.

In principle his idea did work, because when the police end up interviewing a witness of a crime scene in the end of the comic, he can only say that "The thief's license plate was all "1"s or something". What Cueball does not count on is that there are no other license plates made up entirely of the letter I and the digit 1. Thus, when witnesses report a vehicle with a license plate of either/or I's and 1's, the police know exactly who the perpetrator is. 

Given the fact that the police still haven't caught him even though they have his address written on a {{w|Post-it note}} in their car, it seems like they had already thought of the same idea, and when Cueball registered such a license plate they put up the address in the police cars, as they expected him to begin committing crimes. He may already have committed more than one, but they would soon stop him before it turned into a crime spree.  (An alternative interpretation is that his crime spree has so far consisted of minor offenses, so they haven't arrested him, just issued him warnings or citations -- although one would expect him to stop once it became obvious they were onto him.)

Some individuals in [http://imgur.com/jaiblHk New Hampshire] and [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/s/7MGmlV9cDg Kansas] have obtained this license plate.

The title text appears to be a conversation between Cueball and the police the next day when they show up at his address. It turns out that the police suspect Cueball of six bank robberies. Cueball responds that "all" he did was vandalize the library. But the police disregard this as a ''nice try'' to avoid being arrested because witnesses saw a license plate with all 1's and I's was used.  Cueball does not understand this because he was with his car the entire time since he got the license plate. And just as he says this, he has an epiphany and states ''wait. OK, wow that was clever of her''. It is thus clear that he suspects that [[Megan]] of having made a false license plate also with only a combination of I's and 1's. And then she has robbed six banks knowing that the police would be sure to suspect Cueball, who was so foolish to show his criminal intent by registering such a plate in the first place. 

Knowing that the police will assume the car is his, she has thus {{w|frameup|framed}} him. Hopefully for Cueball, he can prove he was not involved in the robberies, but if the police assumed that he was the one that committed the crimes, they may not have taken so much care in collecting evidence the first day of the crimes. This will have given Megan time to run away with all the money, as no one was looking for her. So she may well have left the country with no one looking for a woman. This will make it more difficult for Cueball to avoid the blame.

It is clear that Megan would not be so stupid as to register another plate, because then they would know that there could be more than one criminal. Also she would not have had time to get it, if the crime spree began soon after Cueball showed the plate to her. But if the fake plate makes people tell about the 1s and Is then the police would not ask further and discover that the plate might have looked fake.

Note the yellow police line seems to say ''Police strip do not cross'', where ''Police line do not cross'' seems to be the only sentence used normally (unless it is ''crime scene do not cross'', but that also does not fit). (Of course, this could be a pun about the fact that this occurrence is a comic ''strip''.)

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is walking in from the right holding a license plate up with both hands for an off-panel Megan to see. It is possible to see the plate, but here it looks like all I's (or 1's).]
:Cueball: Check out my personalized license plate!
:Megan (off-panel): <nowiki>"1I1-III1"?</nowiki>
:Cueball: It's perfect!
:Plate: III-IIII

:[In this frame-less panel Megan is sitting in an office chair holding and looking at the plate while Cueball stand next to her rubbing his hands together in front of him.]
:Cueball: No one will be able to correctly record my plate number!
:Cueball: I can commit any crime I want!
:Megan: Sounds foolproof.

:[A man with hair only around his neg and glasses holds out a hand towards a bald male police officer with a black peaked cap with white emblem on the front. The police man interviews their witness holding a notepad and a pen. Another likewise caped female officer is Ponytail who walks to the left arm pointing left. There is a line of yellow police tape behind them with text partially obscured by the characters. At the top left of the panel there is a small frame with a caption:]
:Soon:
:Witness: The thief's license plate was all "1"s or something.
:Police officer: Oh. ''That'' guy.
:Ponytail: His address is on a post-it in the squad car.
:Yellow strip (text not visible in brackets): Poli[ce strip] do not cross [poli]ce stri[p do not] cross.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]