yesterday in the morning i got to my car as everyday. but i noticed that my licence number at the front of my car was missing. at first i thought maybe i lost it somewhere. so i went to the rear side of the car. the second plate was missing too. damn. so i went to the next police station to make a report. the officer there told me that most probably the plates were stolen to be put onto a stolen car and then a crime (whatever sort of) will be committed. additionally the licence number itself will be unavailable for the next five years. damn once more. i owned this number for over eight years now, and it was a heirloom from my grandfather (along with the car, a honda accord). farewell to my beloved "L @ 4727J"... oh, if you ever encounter a car with that number, feel free to report to the police immediately or punch that bastard behind the wheel until s/he is losing consciousness. then be so kind and call me please - tia. after being to the police station and having great fun with the officer there (i was really pleasantly surprised!) i called my insurance agent. he said i need my factory specifications, my registration and the last positive inspection report. ok, finding the first and second item was not too hard, i had them in a folder at home. but the last item was hard to dig up, since i lost the original sheet, as i never care about the piece of paper once i get the annual inspection (MOT test) approved. so i had to call the automobile facilities to get a copy. the problem was, i didn't remember what facility exactly i visited for the last inspection. fortunately there were only three possibilities. so i called each of them. of course it was the facility that was most far away - about 25km. yuhu! thanks to zombiequeen i could use her car to get there and back again. today i met my insurance agent, gave him all the papers, and about three hours later i got my new licence number. let's see if someone will steal this one too. all in all this crap took me about eight hours on the job and 20EUR. surprisingly cheap, actually, i thought it would cost much more. well, at least on this point i was lucky...