From: John De Armond
Newsgroups: ba.general,rec.autos.driving,rec.outdoors.rv-travel
Subject: Re: mobile registration/residency dilemma (long)
Message-ID: <10jg9u0a5r8p1ichu7eietuj1oguk0o80v@4ax.com>
Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2002 04:12:38 -0500

On Tue, 19 Mar 2002 03:14:15 GMT, "Me" <srhi@comcast.net> wrote:

>
>"PCT Hiker" <6c7449f0878ebd9ffb856453d15510d5@orangatango.com> wrote in
>message news:36f79df8.0203181820.6d78ca60@posting.google.com...
>> Hi folks,
>>
>> I feel like no matter where I register the car, one or more of CA, NV,
>> CO will inevitably consider me in violation of their respective
>> Procrustean laws which seem to assume that I will stay in one place,
>> and which define my residency based upon what will best serve their
>> own pecuniary interest.  Of necessity, I park the car routinely in
>> certain private lots that require local long-term parking permits,
>> which I've been told is a 'dead giveaway' to cops looking for
>> out-of-state plates.  From skimming the V.C., it seems I am
>> technically required to present myself at whichever state DMV every
>> few months, convert my DL, pay for emissions tests if applicable, and
>> fork out for a year's title/tags that won't be pro-rated when I leave
>> town again.  Is there some way I can get CA and NV to just leave me
>> the hell alone and let me go where I will in peace with my CO plates?
>> Should I register to vote in CO?  File non-resident tax forms in CA?
>> Toss a suitcase in the back seat and tell the CA/NV cops I'm a
>> tourist?  What?
>
>This is not worth much concern. Don't get stopped by the cops and
>the odds of them questioning your auto registration and DL are slim
>and nil. Make sure your car is fully functioning, all lights and signals
>are in working order, and of course, don't commit moving violations.
>In short, just do what you're supposed to do on the road and you'll
>be fine. I know people who have registered their cars out of state
>for many years without a single problem.

Wrong answer, but thanks for trying.

The cops, especially in border towns like here, have discovered the
revenue potential for doing sweeps of private parking lots at
apartments and the like (in other words, searches without warrants)
looking for out of state tags.  How one drives is irrelevant to
getting caught in such sweeps.

I managed to remain out of sight for 3.5 years in Pa while I consulted
to Three Mile Island NP.  This was very important, as the rapacious
income, personal and other taxes would have put a severe dent in my
income.  I can describe some of the things I did.

First off, you need to do your research and learn the particulars of
what constitutes "residency" in Ca.  The details are very important.
In Pa, the criteria for being judged a Pa resident involved a certain
number of uninterrupted days per year in the state.  How many days
constituted an interruption was also defined.  I made sure that my
travel log reflected these conditions.

I parked my extra cars on The Island which was a high security area
that local yokels were not allowed access to. I rode a motorcycle to
the office every day and put the motorcycle inside when I was at home
so the cops couldn't see my tags.

I kept everything possible Tennessee based - insurance, banking, etc.
I bought an apartment building in Pa that had all the utilities in
common which shielded me from exposure through the utility databases.
I sent all bills down to my parents in Tn to stick in the mail so that
they'd have a TN postmark.  I'd just put all the payments in the
appropriate envelopes, stick 'em all in a Fedex envelope and overnight
them down to my folks.  They dumped the whole wad in the local mail.
All checks were, of course, drawn on my Tn bank. I did all my
day-to-day business in Pa using cash.  I did not want to leave an
electronic paper trail that the state might be able to match up.  The
news reported that the state government periodically ran computer
matches against utility and banking databases.

You have to consider the residency aspect of everything you do.  For
example (this was before the era of teleslime), I never filled out any
sort of contest entry, even for local raffles, because I'd have to
give a local address and maybe phone number.  Speaking of which, I had
a commercial line dropped to my apartment building and registered it
in my corp name.  Of course, I neglected to domesticate my corp in Pa.
There was a small fine if I got caught but not enough to let it bother
me. I kept a phone in my name in Tn (at my folks' house) just in case
anyone checked.  It had an answering machine on it that I checked once
a week or so.  If I had the unfortunate occasion to have to talk to a
government bureaucrat, either I or my wife would take a little road
trip and make the call from either a pay phone or a motel room phone.
No caller*ID back then but the distance did make the call sound like
"long distance".

Last but certainly not least, you MUST live a quiet and boring life.
Dress neatly, keep your hair cut, obey the law when driving or walking
around and for God sake, don't get involved in any causes.  If you
have a flashy or otherwise noticeable car, I suggest you park it out
of state and get something highly ordinary to drive until you get out
of the Ca prison-state.  In short, blend in.  And don't say a WORD
about what you're doing to anyone in Ca.  Amazing what sort of snakes
slither out of the ooze when the opportunity to snitch presents
itself.

Some of these steps might sound extreme but getting nailed as a Pa
citizen would have cost me tens of thousands of bux a year in taxes,
not to mention fines and penalties.

John

From: John De Armond
Newsgroups: ba.general,rec.autos.driving,rec.outdoors.rv-travel
Subject: Re: mobile registration/residency dilemma (long)
Message-ID: <cihi9u0namojk4lk70m7sttvthiq6muio0@4ax.com>
Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2002 21:43:04 -0500

On 20 Mar 2002 17:26:55 GMT, David Kaye <dk@removethis.area.com>
wrote:

>Neon John wrote the quoted material below:
>
>" The cops, especially in border towns like here, have discovered the
>" revenue potential for doing sweeps of private parking lots at
>" apartments and the like (in other words, searches without warrants)
>" looking for out of state tags.  How one drives is irrelevant to
>" getting caught in such sweeps.
>
>Are you SURE of that?

Yes, I'm sure or else I would not have posted it.

>A private lot is a private lot.  There is no
>requirement to have your car registered in order to be parked in a private
>lot; only if you use the roads.  I know of several cars that have not been
>registered in years, that sit on private lots.

Depending on where you live, you are dead wrong.  In Cobb County, Ga
where I previously lived, an untagged car was illegal unless fully
enclosed in a garage.  It was regarded as a junker.  I ran up against
this with my various project cars.  I ended up having to fork out for
tags for all of them, which is the real objective of ordinances like
that.

Chattanooga, TN just passed a similar ordinance.  Cleveland where I
live now has a fairly toothless ordinance.  Generally not enforced
unless there is junk piled up around the car.

The revenue enhancement ordinances that let cops go tag shopping also
generally (IMHO unconstitutionally) designate apartment and other
public parking areas as accessible by the cops without permission of
the owner.

John