Family clarifies that personalized California license plate was not intended to mock Oct. 7 attack

LOS ANGELES — According to the son of the car owner, a custom California license plate that was perceived as making light of the October 7 Israel attack last year actually has a different, innocent meaning.

In an exclusive interview with ABC Los Angeles affiliate KABC, the son, who chose to remain anonymous, sought to clarify the misunderstanding surrounding the license plate. The image of the plate went viral on social media, leading the California Department of Motor Vehicles to issue an apology.

The license plate read “LOLOCT7,” and many interpreted the LOL as an abbreviation for laugh out loud.

However, the car owner’s son said the license plate can be understood if it’s split into three parts: LOLO-CT-7.

Belonging to a Filipino family, the plate has a significance tied to their heritage. In Tagalog, “lolo” translates to grandfather. CT denotes Cybertruck, the model of the vehicle, while the number 7 symbolizes the owner’s seven grandchildren, the son elaborated.

In short, the license plate was an abbreviated way of saying the owner is a grandfather, has a Tesla Cybertruck and has seven grandchildren.

“I think this is just a total big misunderstanding,” the son said.

He said they explained the meaning when they applied on the DMV’s website.

“Whenever you do a vanity plate, you have to put in a description of whatever your plate means,” the son said.

The DMV apologized that something so potentially offensive slipped through the cracks.

“This is unacceptable and disturbing,” the agency said in a social media post on Thursday. “The DMV is taking swift action to recall these shocking plates, and we will immediately strengthen our internal review process to ensure such an egregious oversight never happens again.”

The Cybertruck owner and his family is working to get new plates and want to make it clear they meant no harm.

“We have great empathy for anyone who has experienced any hatred,” the son said. “And we would really appreciate, in turn, for anyone that’s seeing this or hearing this to have any empathy toward our family because we had no ill intent for anything.”