Images have surfaced showing someone in Illinois driving around with a Chicago Bears-themed license plate that reads "WESUCK," but is the plate legitimate?
The vehicle with the license plate was last seen in Chicago's Mount Prospect area this week.
The plate signals it is an Illinois plate with the Chicago Bears colors, logo and name on it, but the vehicle also has a Green Bay Packers sticker just to the left of the plate, which led to some questions.
While the plate may represent how many fans are feeling right now, NBC Chicago asked the Secretary of State's office if such a plate was in fact issued in the state.
"It appears that this is not a valid Illinois license plate," the office said in a statement, noting that it had no record of such a plate.
The plate does, however, resemble Bears-themed license plates offered in the state.
Illinois drivers with vanity plates can't just put anything they choose. The state actually maintains a list of rejected terms or phrases.
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It’s a standard practice in most states to vet people’s choices for license plates, and Illinois has been keeping this list for years.
In May, NBC 5 Chicago Investigates obtained the state’s most recent list.
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“We love the creativity and pride Illinoisans take in choosing their personalized license plates,” Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias said in a statement at the time, “….but a small percentage fail to meet the standards of good taste and decency and are rejected because they violate the state’s vehicle code.”
The office offers this link, where anyone can report a license plate they consider offensive. Those plates are then referred to a small panel in the office’s Vehicle Services Department. Among the plates the panel most recently rejected: DUCKYOU, BITEU, HAIILNO and KISSASH.
Despite the thousands of rejected terms, the Secretary of State’s office says that, over the years, it has issued more than 922,000 vanity or personalized plates to Illinois drivers.
