Personalized California license plate was not a mockery of Oct. 7 attacks, family says

LOS ANGELES (KABC) — A personalized California license plate that appeared to mock last year’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel has been misinterpreted and has an entirely different meaning, the car owner’s son said.

The son, who did not want to be identified, spoke exclusively to Eyewitness News to clarify the meaning after a photo of the license plate went viral on social media and prompted the California Department of Motor Vehicles to issue an apology.

The license plate read “LOLOCT7”, and many interpreted LOL as short for laugh out loud.

However, the car owner’s son said that the number plate can be understood if it is divided into three parts: LOLO-CT-7.

The family is Filipino, and as the son explained, lolo in Tagalog means grandfather. CT stands for Cybertruck – the car model – and 7 represents the owner’s seven grandchildren, the son said.

In short, the license plate was a shorthand way of saying that the owner is a grandfather, has a Tesla Cybertruck and has seven grandchildren.

“I think it’s just a big misunderstanding,” the son said.

He said they explained the meaning when they applied on the DMV website.

“When you make a washboard, put in a description of what your plate means,” said the son.

The DMV apologized that something so potentially offensive slipped through the cracks.

“This is unacceptable and disturbing,” the agency said in a social media post Thursday. “The DMV is taking swift action to revoke these shocking plates, and we will immediately strengthen our internal review process to ensure such an egregious oversight never happens again.”

The Cybertruck owner and his family are working to get new plates and want to make it clear they meant no harm.

“We have great empathy for anyone who has experienced any hate,” the son said. “And in turn, we would really appreciate it if anyone who sees this or hears this has any empathy whatsoever for our family, because we didn’t mean anything bad.”