iTWire had the good fortune this morning to spend an hour with Jon Callas, CTO of Entrust, who in the past worked two stints at Apple in various senior security roles.
Amongst other tales around his time at Apple, we couldn't resist asking if Callas knew anything about the number plate saga. Of course he did - and here it is.
It turns out that Steve quite liked the idea of being different (recall the "think different" slogan so regularly used by Apple) and discovered a perfectly legal way to permanently drive without a number plate.
Some outlets have suggested that he doesn't care and will happily pay a fine if ever confronted by police; others, quoting Steve Wozniak, suggest that he had some kind of permit to do so.
Neither is true. In fact the truth is far simpler.
Steve (or someone close to him) spotted a loophole in the California vehicle laws. Anyone with a brand new car had a maximum of six months to affix the issued number plate to the vehicle.
So Jobs made an arrangement with the leasing company; he would always change cars during the sixth month of the lease, exchanging one silver Mercedes SL55 AMG for another identical one. At no time would he ever be in a car as old as six months; and thus there was no legal requirement to have the number plates fitted.
One might also assume that the leasing company was happy - they had an endless supply of luxury cars to on-sell with the previous driver being none-other that Steve Jobs.
That would be a win-win-win situation for Steve, the leasing company and for the subsequent buyer
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