Florida woman's new plate spells trouble with 'SQZ A55'
Nancy Dello Stritto said the racy-looking tag became instant retirement-community gossip after it arrived in the mail.
By Bianca Rossi · Entertainment Editor
2 min read
A Florida driver's fresh license plate landed in her mailbox with a combination she says she was not ready to put on the back of her car: SQZ A55.
Nancy Dello Stritto, a 76-year-old Pompano Beach resident, told CBS Miami that the tag caught her off guard and quickly became a talking point where she lives.
UPI reported that Dello Stritto had received the new plate by mail. The letters and numbers, when read aloud or glanced at as a phrase, struck her as too suggestive for her taste.
“I don't think a senior who is almost 77 will be driving around with a plate that has that to say,” Dello Stritto told CBS Miami. “When I saw that, I went ballistic. I said, 'How could that pass inspection?'”
Retirement-community chatter
Dello Stritto said the tag did not stay a private annoyance for long. According to UPI, she said the plate became the talk of her retirement community after people saw the unusual combination.
Her first reaction, she told CBS Miami, was to ask for a different plate. That plan appears to have hit some family resistance, at least in the good-humored sense.
Dello Stritto said her sons and friends have been telling her to keep the plate rather than trade it in. The combination may have embarrassed her at first, but the reaction around her seems to have turned the tag into a neighborhood bit.
“I'm resigned to it; maybe it was destined for it to be on my car,” she said, according to CBS Miami. “I can handle it; maybe I'll even get some honks.”
There is a free swap option
Drivers who get a plate they consider offensive do have a way out in Broward County. A county office manager told WESH that license plates judged to be offensive can be exchanged at no cost at the county office in Plantation.
UPI reported the story on July 15, placing Dello Stritto's plate in the grand Florida tradition of strange paperwork surprises, public reactions and neighbors who absolutely notice what is parked outside.
For now, Dello Stritto has indicated she may live with the tag after all, even if it was not the message she expected from a state-issued plate.
This story draws on original reporting from UPI.