LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — For decades, everything was normal in Dennis White’s east valley neighborhood. That was until the pandemic when he started noticing cars with no plates pop up.
White told 8 News Now that unregistered cars will sit along the curb for weeks or even months, and any law enforcement action is rarely seen.
“Something needs to be done to get this under control. I don’t want this to turn into, a neglected state,” White said.
White said some people in the neighborhood will buy secondhand cars for the purpose of fixing and selling them, but in the meantime — they take up space in the road. He said they’ve taken up so much space for such a long time that he’s got his own term for them, “curbers.” He’s reported the “curbers” many times over the years, and for the most part, has seen nothing but them getting tagged with warning stickers.
“There were five cars lined up here one time, all tagged. Within hours the curbers remove the tags,” White said.
White claims that those he reported have retaliated by throwing paint and eggs at his garage.
The Chief of the Nevada DMV’s Compliance Enforcement Division JD Decker, recognized that unregistered cars are a problem on Nevada’s streets.
“It’s a huge issue right now. It’s gotten worse over the past five years or so,” Decker said. “Anybody that drives in Southern Nevada sees vehicles with unregistered tags, out of state expired tags or no plates at all.”
His department, and others in the area are working to tackle the issue, but it’s a challenge.
“There is nothing in Nevada statute that makes parking an unregistered vehicle on the street illegal,” Decker said. “So, the way the statutes read, if the vehicle’s being operated on the roadway and it’s unregistered, then we can stop it and write a citation. If it’s simply parked in front of someone’s house, it’s not necessarily illegal unless it can be deemed to be abandoned.”
In the meantime, White is reaching out to his county commissioner hoping for some change.
