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It’s easy to feel like a digital Nancy Drew in the age of information. You can find most details about a person’s public life with little more than their full name and relative location. You can uncover secret profiles of a person by knowing their common aliases. You can find an address with little more than a name.
However, can you uncover someone’s address with a license plate alone? While a license plate does link back to an owner’s address, whether or not that information is accessible will come down to a lot of factors.
This article is going to give you a head start on an address lookup by license plate. While we cannot promise you that results will always be forthcoming, we can give you the information needed to eventually get that address.
Three Best Methods for Address Lookup by License Plate
The following are the best ways to get an address by license plate, though finding an address with a license plate alone can be difficult. We strongly recommend using other information you get about the individual in a search, such as a name or number. If you do find an address, you can use a reverse address search to learn more about the license plate owner.
Do not use any of the information or methods in this article to harass, intimidate, stalk or threaten anyone, as it is illegal.
Reach Out to the DMV
It is important to know that the legality of finding a person’s name off of their license plate is different depending on which state you are in. So before you contact your DMV, it can save you some time to check whether it is even possible in your specific state. If it is, contact your local Department of Motor Vehicles to see what publicly available information they can give.
It should be said that you should not immediately expect an address. In fact, it is highly unlikely. However, if you can get a name from it, that is very useful information that can get you an address using the methods listed below.
Contact Local Police
If you want to find someone’s address by their license plate because you witnessed a crime, you should always reach out to the police first. While you, as a civilian, cannot ascertain information from a license plate through a Google search, Police can through their database. If your information leads to a case, you can get information from that case later.
The case file may not give you an address, but it will give you the recipient’s name. This name can be used in the following section to give you more insight into the individual and potentially an address.
Use a People Search Engine
If you wanted to impress someone with your cyber sleuth abilities, the best method would be to never let them know about a people search engine. People, phone and reverse address lookups have taken the work out of getting public records online.
By entering a person’s full name and location, phone number or an address they have lived at, you can basically get an unofficial background check. So for those who can get the name off of a license plate, you may be in luck when it comes time to search through a people search engine, which may show you far more than just the individual’s list of addresses.
Because of the deeply powerful and invasive nature of people search engines, it is legally required that you do not use these sites to stalk, harass, threaten, or intimidate anyone. If you got cut off while driving and wrote down the license plate to torment the person for a minor inconvenience, this would be a good time to be the bigger person.
Last Stop for Address Lookup by License Plate
While it is hardly guaranteed that you will always pull an address from a license plate alone, it is not impossible, nor unlikely. Try to get information from the DMV, or report the license plate to local police if it was involved in a crime. Information you get can be used in a people search engine, which may help you find an address.
