[wallflower]

At least 10 years ago, a friend forgot where he parked his car in the Airport parking lot after a long trip. When he went to the booth embarrassed to tell them this, they said it was no big deal and did a quick tap-tap-tap on the keyboard using his license plate number to determine its exact location. They apparently scanned all the license plates in all their lots twice a day.

[ceejayoz]

> They apparently scanned all the license plates in all their lots twice a day.

I'd bet this is to prevent people from claiming they lost their ticket after parking in the garage for a month in order to pay the daily max rate instead of a month's worth of fees.

[camhenlin]

Yes I have lost my ticket before, and the attendant was able to look up how long my car was parked by the license plate and charge me appropriately

[Maxious]

And sometimes they make a mobile app so you can find your car too! With a JSON API so you can find the number plate of every other car in the lot! https://www.troyhunt.com/find-my-car-find-your-car-find/

[EmployedRussian]

In 2001 my car was towed from LAX parking lot because they checked the plate (they told me they scan all plates daily) and it came back as registered to a different make.

Turns out the dealer made a single-letter mistake in VIN when registering the car with DMV, and there is no check digit to reject invalid VINs.

[phil21]

There is a check digit. Most likely someone at the dealer copy/pasted the wrong VIN into the form.

[michaelt]

Even when you've got a check digit, if you make 100 typos a year only 90 of them will get caught.

[gruez]

>there is no check digit to reject invalid VINs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_identification_number#... ?

[Bromskloss]

In whose interest is it to scan and tow such cars?