I-20 West end

[jwolfer]

Out of state plate heading west on something other the main route of travel in a border state.  Say you're the officer, do you pick a local vehicle to follow?  Or do you follow something that doesn't look like it belongs and where it likely shouldn't be?  I wasn't in Dallas by then, I was west of Abeline which is really gets pretty remote.

If you'd been on I-10, it would have been even more remote.  I-10 is the main route only for people headed to or from the Gulf Coast area.  If your origin or destination is anywhere north of there, I-20 is the better route, which is why it has substantially more traffic. I'm not trying to argue with you, but I think it's weird to consider driving on I-20 as suspicious.  Seeing Virginia plates on I-10 east of I-20 would be more suspicious to me.  It's closer to the border and more out of the way of the most likely line of travel. Even then, that suspicion is hard to justify.  They may have gone to New Orleans first, or may be headed to the Big Bend.  I can't imagine being that paranoid.

What about a rental car? Suppose you were in an accident and got a car with out of state tags. When my ex totaled her car the rental car was from TN and we live in FL.

Speaking of Florida, law enforcement liked the county named tags to know  "who ain't from around these parts".. 

Urban legend  in all the retirement villages in South Florida back in the 90swas  that criminals in Miami would carjack non Dade County tags in Miami.

I liked the county named tags but I appreciate not being instantly known as being from out of town

[Max Rockatansky]

Yeah I always picked "Sunshine State" tags so it really wouldn't be immediately apparent where I was from.  Usually rental cars have some dead giveaways like barcodes in several locations in the windows that make them really apparent.  I think it was more a function of the actual hour of day combined with the out of state tag..which of course was a rental.  It would be hard to discern a rental car from the back before sunrise.