Back in the eighties, I did a comic book called Crossfire, which was drawn by a superb artist named Dan Spiegle. Crossfire was a super-hero (sort of) who in his other identity was a bailbondsman. He drove around L.A. in a 1957 Thunderbird that was identical to a 1957 Thunderbird that I then owned and often drove around L.A. One day, Dan was drawing an issue and he called up and asked me what our hero's license plate was. He had drawn a panel that required that info…so I thought for about two seconds and said, "BAIL4U." Thereafter, whenever Dan drew the T-Bird, that was usually seen on the plate.
A few weeks ago, I was driving through a parking garage in Century City when I did an automotive double-take. I literally passed another car, saw something, realized what I thought I'd seen, hit the brakes and then backed up about ten yards so I could see if I'd actually seen what I thought I'd seen. Sure enough, it was the license plate from Crossfire's car…
Fortunately, I had my camera with me. Unfortunately, the plate was not on a 1957 Thunderbird. It was on a late model Mercedes that I'm guessing belongs to a rather successful person in the bail bond business.
There's really nothing more to this story than that. I just thought it was amazing that I noticed the plate, and I figured there might be one Crossfire reader who visits this site who'd be amused by it. I didn't stick around until the owner came back to the car. I was afraid it might be my character.