Last year, Florida rejected 130 vanity plate applications for being too obscene for public roads. Then the state’s own system generated a standard-issue plate reading “SQZ A55” and mailed it to a 76-year-old woman in Pompano Beach — and nobody caught it until she did.
Nancy Dello Stritto didn’t need a dirty mind to read the plate. Neither did her neighbors. “When I saw that, I went ballistic,” she told CBS Miami, describing the moment she realized her new tag phonetically spelled out “squeeze ass.” In a retirement community, no less.
The System That’s Supposed to Stop This
Florida built an entire bureaucratic fortress against exactly this kind of thing — yet one randomly generated sequence walked right through it.
The FLHSMV’s Inventory Control Unit screens every personalized plate request. A dedicated review board meets monthly to vote on borderline cases. Section 320.0805 of Florida Statutes even grants authority to recall plates after they’ve already been issued.
That fortress has one notable blind spot: it guards the front door while leaving the back wide open.
All that scrutiny targets vanity plate applicants — people deliberately requesting combinations like:
- “8AD AZZ”
- “FAF0MF”
- “MR DUI”
Randomly generated standard-issue sequences like Dello Stritto’s get shipped without the same human review. Automated screening catches obvious profanity but struggles badly with phonetic readings and number-letter substitutions. It’s the DMV equivalent of autocorrect letting the worst possible word through at the worst possible moment. Florida blocked more than 500 plate requests in 2023 alone, per the New York Post, yet a randomly generated sequence accomplished what hundreds of deliberate applicants couldn’t.
She Decided to Keep It
What started as a mortifying trip to the mailbox ended with Dello Stritto becoming the most talked-about driver in her neighborhood.
Her first instinct was to swap the plate immediately. Broward County officials confirmed she could get a free replacement at the Plantation tag office — no questions asked, no cost involved.
But her sons thought it was hilarious. Her friends agreed. After talking it over, she reversed course entirely, joking to CBS Miami that the racy tag might earn her extra honks from passing drivers. A “Florida Woman” headline she chose to own rather than fight.
If your plate ever reads like a punchline you didn’t write, Florida will replace it at no cost. Dello Stritto simply decided she’d rather be the joke everyone wishes they’d told first.
