![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_2125-1-1-rotated-e1786730468483.jpg\")
The rear plate was perfectly bent to hide its first three letters. Photo: Sammy Sussman<\/p>\nDon\u2019t get all bent out of shape.<\/p>\n
The Manhattan District Attorney\u2019s Office revoked an employee\u2019s parking placard and opened an investigation into their conduct on Friday after Streetsblog asked about the employee\u2019s comically creased license plate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have revoked access to the vehicle and placard,\u201d said Douglas Cohen, a spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney. \u201cWe are conducting a full investigation and will take appropriate disciplinary action.\u201d<\/p>\n
The rear plate was perfectly bent to hide its first three letters. Photo: Sammy Sussman<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_2124-1-rotated-e1786730407189.jpg\")
The official placard used by this scofflaw. Photo: Sammy Sussman<\/p>\n
Last Wednesday, we found the employee\u2019s car, a black 2013 Ford Edge SUV, parked on Mulberry Street \u2014 about two blocks away from the district attorney\u2019s office and the county courthouse. <\/p>\n
The car drew our attention because it displayed an official District Attorney placard and featured a rear license plate that someone \u2014 presumably the car\u2019s owner \u2014 had folded horizontally in two places to obscure the plate\u2019s first three letters. New York City drivers often deface and deform their license plates to evade automated cameras that issue speeding tickets and collect tolls.<\/p>\n
We were unable to immediately identify the employee, and Cohen refused to provide their name or title. This raises the alarming possibility that the car\u2019s driver is an actual prosecutor \u2014 who are usually on the other end<\/a> of investigations into altered or missing license plates.<\/p>\n In 2024, the current Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg compared<\/a> so-called \u201cghost cars\u201d with fake or obscured plates to ghost guns, calling these illegal cars \u201ca threat to our streets.\u201d Months later, he emphasized<\/a> that of these vehicles pose \u201ca danger to Manhattan pedestrians, bikers, and drivers.\u201d<\/p>\n City records show<\/a> that the Ford Edge\u2019s driver collected tickets for illegal driving and parking every few months between November 2023 and December 2025, when the tickets suddenly ceased. In other words: a vehicle that received 23 tickets over about two years \u2014 five bus lane tickets, eight speeding tickets and 10 parking tickets \u2014 suddenly stopped receiving tickets over the past nine months.<\/p>\n \t\t\tRecommended<\/p>\n \t\t Streetsblog has spent years writing about the many placard-wielding government employees<\/a> who abuse their powers to park illegally on our streets.<\/a> Many of<\/a> these employees<\/a> also get<\/a> away with<\/a> obscured, defaced<\/a> or covered<\/a> license plates<\/a>, even though it is often their own employers that have vowed to combat this problem.<\/p>\n Three years ago, for example, Streetsblog caught a former NYPD hostage negotiator and \u201chourly consultant\u201d for the Manhattan District Attorney\u2019s Office parked with an official placard and a covered license plate.<\/a> Within a week, the employee resigned from his consultant job<\/a> while facing an disciplinary investigation.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve also written about the untold number of vehicles parked illegally around police precincts, where the NYPD is allowed to \u201cself-enforce\u201d city parking rules<\/a>. Very little self-enforcement actually happens \u2014 and despite the Department of Investigation\u2019s recommendation that the NYPD end this practice, the police department quietly continued it<\/a> while city pols looked the other way.<\/p>\n Streetsblog has filed a formal records request with the DA to determine the driver\u2019s identity. In the meantime: Their New York license plate\u2019s number is LBR2580 and their parking placard\u2019s ID number is 31078. If you happen to know who this is, please get in touch<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t get all bent out of shape. The Manhattan District Attorney\u2019s Office revoked an employee\u2019s parking placard and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63,52479],"class_list":["post-322878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-promoted"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322878","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=322878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n \t![\"Ten](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/placard-mound-on-liberty-island.jpg\")
\n \t\t<\/a><\/p>\n