SALISBURY, Mass. -- A newspaper clipping describing a recipe for short ribs landed a North Shore man in jail after he pasted the square piece of paper onto his windshield and tried to pass it off as an inspection sticker.
Kevin M. Guy, 51, of 22 Pike St., Salisbury, was arrested last Friday at 8:46 p.m. and charged with forging/misusing a RMV document, operating a motor vehicle with a suspended license and failure to dim headlights. Officer Richard Dellaria made the arrest on Collins Street after Guy passed him on Route 286 with his high beams on.
Word of the fake inspection sticker spread fast after Salisbury police tweeted a photo of the forged document and posted it on its Facebook page.
"We will notice this. Do not use this as an inspection sticker on your vehicle! Someone did this tonight and was charged with a felony," the Facebook post reads.
Guy's arrest comes only two weeks after, police say, he was busted for forging another inspection sticker. In that case, Guy created a fake sticker using an Iron Man comic book decal.
In addition to being arrested and charged with forging/misusing an RMV document, Guy was charged with operating a motor vehicle with a suspended license (subsequent offense) and no inspection sticker.
The next day, he was sentenced to a year's probation for forging an RMV document charge, a felony, and six months in jail for driving with a suspended license. All jail time was suspended for a year, according to court documents.
But based on his latest arrest, Judge Peter Doyle ordered him to serve six months in jail with sentences to run concurrently.
According to Salisbury police officer Neil Moody, on Feb. 10, he noticed what looked to be an oversized and smudged inspection sticker as Guy's car passed him while he was parked on Bridge Road.
After pulling Guy over, Moody conducted a check of Guy's license and registration and determined that his license had been suspended and the car not inspected since 2010. Before running the check, however, Moody watched as Guy reached across his windshield and grabbed the decal.
Guy later admitted to forging the sticker.
Salisbury police Chief Thomas Fowler said it's rare to see fake inspection stickers, since they are color coded and have large numbers printed on them. But he praised the work of his officers, saying they were paying attention to details while conducting traffic stops.
Asked to speculate what might have prompted Guy to risk committing a felony for an inspection sticker that costs $29, Fowler said Guy might have been trying to avoid making costly repairs to his car, a 2000 Toyota Camry.
Moody's report said that Guy told the officer that his car had a check-engine light illuminated, and he didn't have the money to bring it to a shop.
Copyright 2014 - Gloucester Daily Times, Mass.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
