(upbeat music)
- A few weeks ago, I posted this Datsun on my Instagram.
Pretty cool, right.
But almost immediately, the comments were flooded
with responses like this.
People worried that I accidentally doxed the owner
by posting the car without the license plate blurred.
So that got me wondering, are these people just paranoid,
or can you actually get personal information
from a license plate.
Oh my God!
Should I be paranoid.
(dramatic music)
There are a bunch of reasons
to look up someone else's license plate.
Maybe you were in a hit and run,
and caught the driver's license plate.
Maybe you want to run a check on this one,
and get Batman's address.
And obviously, if you're interested in buying a vehicle,
you'd like to be able to make sure
it wasn't previously owned
by one of those guys who has relations with their car.
Cause you want to be first.
(whispering)
When the police run a license plate
they can get a bunch of information.
Current and previous owners.
Registered address, insurance information, etc.
They can look up license plates all day.
But it's illegal to just give this information
out to anyone who asks.
Which means to get this access, you'd have to become a cop.
Which honestly seems like a lot of work, so.
What information can I, a non-police officer,
get from a license plate.
It's time for some donut media investigative journalism.
(jazz music)
This is Zach Jobe, he's handsome.
He knows how to work on cars.
He's also the most mysterious employee at Donut.
He always shows up on time and never cuts out early.
What kind of freak is this guy!
There are a bunch of license plate
lookup websites out there.
They pull old DMV records,
but also search public court records.
They promise they can get more info
than a simple DMV Freedom of Information Vehicle Request.
Including owner criminal history,
and sometimes even mug shots, and it'll show you everything.
If you pay $5.
This is where a lot of people might lose interest.
You might not want to give your credit card number
to a website that literally sells
people's personal information.
But I gotta know about Zach.
Here's the license plate on his Miata.
Let's find out what goodies we can get.
So we actually used one of these free websites.
(upbeat music)
I wouldn't be surprised if this turns up anything useful.
All right, so it's a 1994 Mazda MX-5.
Oh, it's telling me that the Miata,
is a convertible 2 door, very good information.
The picture at least shows a red Miata,
with different wheels.
I think this is just a stock photo,
I don't think that it actually has the real plate.
All right, so we can't verify the information,
for violations and citations on the Miata,
because I don't know if Zach's
been a bad boy with his Miata.
I don't know if this is accurate.
But I do know that I've been a bad boy with my car,
so I'm gonna search my plate and see if any citations
and violations come up,
to see if this is like a legit website.
And find my plate says, no violation or citations found
for my plate number which I have for sure, gotten.
So I don't think this is a very useful website.
It doesn't tell me anything about Zach Jobe,
and that's what I want.
We got the make and model of his car,
which I guess we could have ascertained by looking
at the vehicle the license plate is attached to.
But that's the cheap way, I wanted to make sure.
I wanted to give them money.
I'm hoping that we get some luck there,
because I need to know what that Zach Jobe is up to.
He's handsome, he's funny, and he can work on cars.
Somethings wrong with him.
- [Alex] And he knows how to ride a horse.
- He knows how to ride a horse too?
God Dammit, this guys everything.
Warning, again this is, you can only do this
if you're following the law.
Which I'm not.
Ooh, it's got a progress bar,
so you know it's actually working.
Your database is updated as of today.
So that's convenient.
So initial stuff from SearchQuarry is just basic stuff.
Like it tells me it's a Mazda,
it tells me how big the engine is.
It tells me that it's a full report available,
so tons of plans.
A five day trial, is only $5 bucks.
Again, it makes you say that you are following the law.
Hmm, this seems like a good option, legitimate business.
For you use by any legitimate business or it's agents.
Me, to verify the accuracy
of personal information submitted by the individual.
View report, here we go, the report is ready.
And now it says it's searching for the plate.
I thought you said it was ready.
Oh, my God, the picture they have for it,
the render of a Miata, that's slammed in like five spokes.
Anyway, it's a Mazda, just like we learned on the free site.
There's premium VIN information,
of course you want to pay again.
No, we're not doing that.
Dude, this is bull (beep)!
It's just telling me information about the car,
nothing about the owner.
For $5 bucks, I am pissed.
All right, for $5 we found a whole lot of nothing.
Basically, everything that we could have found,
with the free website, we got for $5 bucks.
So I have been cheated, my day has been ruined.
I feel like this was a dumb idea.
Isn't there a way we can get
the police level license plate search all in one place?
According to intelhawkpi.com, yes we can.
At intelhawkpi.com.
They advertise that they employ
licensed private investigators who have access
to non-public databases.
A license plate search is a whopping $20.
But Zach sometimes tucks his shirt in,
so he probably has bodies in his trunk.
Let's see what we can do.
Buy now, select a state.
California isn't listed on here, what?
Colorado, well we can't use this one.
Because California is not on here.
In the states California, Hawaii,
New Hampshire, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Virginia,
this intel hawk site is unable to do anything.
I don't know what to do here Alex, what do we do?
(murmur from Alex) (beep)
All right, so why couldn't I do a search in California?
Well according to the Cali DMV website,
certain protections are granted when it comes
to the personal info linked to your license plate.
Major things like your medical information,
social security number, phone number, license number,
and fingerprints are totally safe.
No one outside the DMV can get
that information without a warrant.
But your address, that's a little different.
Non-government entities like car manufacturers
can get your info from the DMV to send you recall notices.
Colleges can to, not for recalls,
but to send you parking tickets.
So that's how UCLA found me.
And frankly, that's scary.
And I don't like the idea of it at all.
But it makes sense in the context
of law enforcement I guess.
But police would already have access
to that sort of system,
so what could a private party do with that?
I don't know, because we're in California,
and we couldn't do it.
Lucky for me though, Zach is from Ohio.
Zach's roommate, my twin John Seron sent me a picture
of Zach's RV license plate.
And we're gonna run that search instead
and see what we uncover.
There's less hurdles on this website
to search a plate from Ohio, than one from California.
So big brain time for me.
We paid for it, we paid them $25.
I hope there's no consequences.
Okay, this is funny.
I really hope they're cool with it.
All right, we got the info from the intelhawk.
I want to read it to Jobe, right now,
and we're gonna see if it's accurate.
Come here for a sec.
- [Zach] What do you got a clipboard for?
- You didn't know this,
but we ran a license plate check on your RV.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
And I just want to verify to see if this,
this is legit, like we (beep) spent $25.
- What did you do this for?
- I got some information about you,
I just want to check if this is real.
Did you live at 3629 (beep) St, in North Kansas.
- Sure did, that's where I came from.
- Does your social security number start (beep).
- You got all that, yeah it does.
(laughing hilariously)
What else do you know?
- It doesn't have your Driver's License number thankfully.
- Okay, good.
Just has my soc.
(laughing hilariously)
- Alex, remember where gonna bleep.
(beep)
Apparently you can also spend $75
for a list of vehicle sightings.
Supposedly intelhawk has access
to traffic cameras that collects time
and location data of license plates.
Claiming to have a database
of over 9 billion vehicle sightings in the US.
Okay, even though I don't really like the idea
of giving intel hawk more money.
We did get some really good information last time.
So we opted to spend $75 more dollars
and run a license plate image search.
We got some pretty interesting results.
Which I have right here.
Uh, Zach.
Zach.
- Yes. - Oh.
- What kind of dirt did you dig up on me today, Nolan?
- Well, we got some photos of your RV.
- Oh my God!
- Just parked I assume.
These are all, they all look like there
kind of in the same location.
It's creepy right.
- It is pretty creepy, whose taking pictures?
How did you find these?
- I think these are all taken from the dash of cop cars.
- Aha, I mean I guess you can't do that much
with this info, but I still don't really like it.
- For $100, we found all that information.
- And you could be anybody, you could be crazy.
- Yeah.
- You could be a nut job.
- Total nut job.
- Coming after me.
- So can I find your house with your license plate.
Yes, honestly, I was not expecting this result.
I think it's incredible that all someone needs
to find your personal information is a credit card
and your license plate.
Of course, our license plate's aren't the only thing
in our life that can give away our info.
Think about how much you use your phone.
How much private info do you send through it everyday.
Think about all the smart devices in our home, right now.
That are no doubt collecting
and sending stuff to databases all over.
It's not a pleasant thought.
But if it makes you feel better,
go ahead and put a thumb over that license plate.
At least it's one thing you can protect
once you park wrong at UCLA.
They will find you, and they'll charge you $75.
The sign was not clear.
Honestly I think protecting
your privacy is really important.
I can't really cause I'm on the Internet,
and I'm a narcissist,
so I plug my name everywhere.
Are you still gonna put your thumb
over pictures on Craigslist.
Let me know in the comments.
Love to hear from you guys what you thought of this video.
What are some other myths or legends
or things you want us to test out?
I'm really into this investigative thing.
It's fun to do stuff like this.
First name, Harry.
Last name, Potter.
Primary contact number, Taco Bell.
Sorry to cashier at Taco Bell.
Please enter your, that's my...
So now a private investigator is gonna get a request
from Harry Potter, whose phone number is the Taco Bell
in Cascadel, California.
Be kind, see you next time.