California’s East Bay got a shock on the morning of New Year’s Eve when a sleek black Chevrolet Camaro turned a routine patrol on Interstate 580 into something out of a spy movie. At around 8:20 in the morning, officers from the California Highway Patrol spotted a motorist barreling down the highway at speeds well over 100 miles per hour. What happened next has police scratching their heads and asking the public for help identifying the driver and vehicle involved.
For law enforcement, Interstate 580 can be a daily blur of commuters and big rigs. On this day, though, it was the scene of a high-speed enigma. It’s not a simple case of a Camaro outrunning the officers pursuing it; it also seemed to make its identity vanish. According to the CHP, the vehicle’s license plate went “black” or “turned off” during the chase, depriving authorities of a critical tool used to track down fleeing drivers.
Now You See It, Now You Don’t
This odd twist in an otherwise familiar story of speeding and evasion has raised more questions than answers. Social media users wondered if the Camaro was fitted with a so-called digital license plate that can be manipulated remotely.
California has been at the forefront of experimenting with electronic plates, which are legal when properly registered and used within regulations. Yet the idea that such tech could be exploited to intentionally thwart police tracking naturally grabbed headlines and sparked speculation about potential misuse.
The CHP’s Dublin area office released a description of the plate itself, noting it was black with yellow or white lettering before it went dark. That limited detail underscores just how little investigators know about the driver or the exact nature of the disappearing tag technology…