WTF ?

Hysterical.

State's sample license plate: What the ...?

By Dan Kane, Staff Writer

Last year, state officials notified nearly 10,000 holders of license plates with the letter combination "WTF" that they could get a replacement at no charge after officials learned that the combination is a common acronym in text messaging for a vulgar phrase, "What the ..."

But while tracking down the errant plates, no one at the Division of Motor Vehicles checked their own Web site. "WTF-5505" is shown as a sample of a personalized plate.

"I can't believe it," DMV Commissioner Bill Gore said Monday when alerted to the situation. "Obviously, I didn't know it was there."

Other DMV officials indicated they noticed the plate last week, several days after The News & Observer first reported on the problems with the WTF plates. The DMV is trying to remove the plate from the Web site and hopes to have it replaced in a day or so.

WTF was the first random letter combination available when DMV switched from blue- to red-lettered plates. DMV spokeswoman Marge Howell received a sample plate WTF-5506 to use as a prop for news stories about the switch.

No one made the connection.

"If you are not looking for something you usually don't see it," Howell said.

The DMV was alerted to the vulgar message last July when a 60-year-old technology teacher from Fayetteville complained about the plate. Her teenage grandchildren clued her in.