{"id":118385,"date":"2026-01-31T14:52:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T14:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/118385\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T14:52:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T14:52:07","slug":"upstate-ny-nonna-had-to-hand-in-beloved-bella-plates-after-getting-tickets-meant-for-nyc-biker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/118385\/","title":{"rendered":"Upstate NY nonna had to hand in beloved ‘Bella’ plates after getting tickets meant for NYC biker"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a license to bill.<\/p>\n

An upstate granny had to give up her beloved \u201cBELLA\u201d vanity plate because she was being flooded with speeding tickets meant for an NYC biker with a fugazi copycat tag.<\/p>\n

Sharon Ritmo has gotten 10 speed-camera tickets since June meant for an NYC motorcyclist \u2014 despite the fact that she\u2019s an Albany grandma who\u2019s never ridden a motorcycle in her life.<\/p>\n

Upstate New York grandma had to relinquish her beloved \u201cBella\u201d license plate after receiving tickets meant for a NYC motorcyclist. Courtesy Sharon Ritmo<\/p>\n

The unidentified biker illegally placed a souvenir vanity plate, also \u201cBELLA\u201d \u2014 Italian for \u201cbeautiful\u201d \u2014 on his motorcyle in order to evade camera tickets, a practice officials refer to as \u201cghost plates<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The stepmom of three and grandmother of five drives a 2017 Kia Sportage.<\/p>\n

Two of the $50 tickets were issued on her birthday, Aug. 31, when she was in Sicily celebrating with her husband.<\/p>\n

Her local Department of Motor Vehicles<\/a> wasn\u2019t able to help her, and appealing the tickets online did nothing to stop them from coming.<\/p>\n

Ritmo, a nurse, got so nervous that she would be arrested that she began driving with a letter from her lawyer in her glove compartment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u00a0was careful, I didn\u2019t speed, I didn\u2019t go on highways or do anything crazy,\u201d she told The Post.<\/p>\n

The plates were a gift from her husband, Giuseppe, 40 years ago. Angus Mordant for NY Post<\/p>\n

Ritmo received ten tickets for $50 a piece from Jun-Oct. Angus Mordant for NY Post<\/p>\n

City Councilmember Oswald Feliz (D-The Bronx) told The Post that \u201cghost plates\u201d are a worsening problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cDMV closed many physical locations during the pandemic, and temporary paper plates became common. This opened the floodgates for many fraudulent schemes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

An advocate at the NYC Office of Parking Summons was able to resolve the outstanding tickets, however, Ritmo was told the only way to prevent more tickets from coming would be to turn in her cherished plates, which she did with a heavy heart on Oct. 21.<\/p>\n

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She got the plates in 1985 when her husband Joe, who owns a barbershop, surprised her by putting them on her Mitsubishi Laser.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a love story . . . he called me outside, he had the plates made for me, and I\u2019ve had it for 40 years,\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy husband\u2019s from Sicily, the Bella name is meaningful to him,\u201d she explained, \u201cIt\u2019s my nickname, it\u2019s what my husband always calls me. When I gave up my plates, I felt like I was giving up part of my identity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The plate had immense sentimental value to Ritmo. Courtesy Sharon Ritmo<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very sad. This truly did mean something to my husband and I. The end of an era, 40 years of meaning something special,\u201d she told The Post.<\/p>\n

When asked if she would consider buying a new vanity plate<\/a>, Ritmo said she wanted to let the dust settle before making a decision, adding the whole situation was immensely stressful for her.<\/p>\n

And though she may no longer have the license plate, her nickname endures.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy husband tells me I\u2019m still his Bella.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a license to bill. An upstate granny had to give up her beloved \u201cBELLA\u201d vanity plate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4241,38806,9,56,63,65,64,103,2114,58],"class_list":["post-118385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-albany","tag-license-plates","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-nypd","tag-tickets","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}