This is the reason why license plate - address information should not be available to the general public:
(From Wikipedia)
On July 18, 1989, actress Rebecca Schaeffer was murdered by
Robert John Bardo, an obsessed fan who had been stalking her for three years.[SUP]
[4][/SUP] Bardo had become fixated on Schaeffer after his previous fixation, child peace activist
Samantha Smith, died in an airplane crash in 1985.[SUP]
[5][/SUP] Bardo wrote several letters to Schaeffer, one of which was answered by an employee from Schaeffer's fan service. In 1987, Bardo traveled to Los Angeles in an attempt to see Schaeffer at the
My Sister Sam set, but was turned away by
CBS Television City security. Angry, he returned a month later armed with a knife but again security guards prevented him from gaining access to the actress. Bardo returned to his native
Tucson and forgot about Schaeffer for a while; he became preoccupied by pop singers
Debbie Gibson and
Tiffany.[SUP]
[6]
[/SUP]
In 1989, after viewing Schaeffer's film Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills, in which she appeared in bed with a male actor, Bardo became enraged and decided that Schaeffer should be punished for becoming "another Hollywood *****."[SUP][7][/SUP] Having read that Theresa Saldana's stalker, Arthur Richard Jackson, had obtained Saldana's address through a private investigator, Bardo approached a Tucson detective agency and paid them $250 to get Schaeffer's home address through California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) records.[SUP][8][/SUP][SUP][9][/SUP] Bardo's brother helped him get a handgun because he was underage (Bardo was then 19).[SUP][10][/SUP]
Following Schaeffer's murder and Saldana's
assault, California laws regarding the release of personal information through the DMV were drastically changed. The
Driver's Privacy Protection Act was enacted in 1994, which prevents the DMV from releasing private addresses.[SUP]
[17][18][/SUP]
Now, do you still really think that it is such a great idea to have this information avaialble to anyone with $250.00 to pay to a PI?
