@PL8HNTR.RVA is going viral for hunting down custom license plates, sharing backstories

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- If you have a custom license plate, Ryan Yearsley, otherwise known as @PL8HNTR.RVA on Instagram, wants to know the backstory. And he’s not alone, his interviews are going viral on social media, gaining hundreds of thousands of views.

The cryptic plates catch Yearsley’s attention the most. He said one of the first plates and on-the-spot interviews he conducted was in response to the plate FLCKSTR. The driver told Yearsley he developed an app called ‘Flockstar’ which helps farmers manage a flock of chickens. 

“From there I was hooked and I was really interested in bugging every person I could in a parking lot that had an ambiguous plate,” Yearsley said. 

Yearsley said his favorite plates are short four or five letter words. Some examples documented on his Instagram account include YAP, CAR, SCREAMO, MILK and LIAR.

Virginia has the highest number of custom vanity plates per registered motor vehicle, according to the Vanity License Plates Survey by American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators and LCNS2ROM - LICENSE TO ROAM. The survey shows 16.19% of cars on the road in Virginia have a custom plate. 

Yearsley thinks custom plates are so popular in the Commonwealth because they are affordable. 

The Virginia DMV says personalized plates cost $10 a year tacked onto the vehicle registration and special plate fees. 

Money made from some special plates gets donated to various charities. For example, Yearsley’s Friends of the Blue Ridge plate donates money to environmental conservation efforts. 

Yearsley’s plate reads SKID-MRX, which is a reference to a PlayStation 2 video game, ‘Ratchet & Clank.’ The character is a professional hoverboard racer named Skidd McMarx. Yearsley said he has used this name for many video game usernames and monikers in the past. He also autocross races the car which occasionally leaves skid marks. 

“I always look at people’s vanity plates as the username that they interface the road system with,” Yearsley said. 

Yearsley said his Instagram, which started off as a side project, is becoming “a whole operation.” 

He uses a microphone attached to a mini license plate to interview people. On his page, he has a link to a calendar so people with custom plates can set up a time to be interviewed. He also has business cards and stickers that read @PL8HNTR on a Virginia plate. 

“It’s definitely something that’s gotten way more traction than I ever anticipated,” Yearsley said. 

Yearsley makes wanted posters for plates he sees that he doesn’t have time to stop for or take a picture of. 

“There’s a man with LICENSE and he has a bumper sticker that says something to the effect of ‘I don’t care about your vanity plate.’ So that’s someone I’d really like to talk to. So, LICENSE, if you’re out there, I’m coming for you,” Yearsley said. 

Have a custom plate and want to be interviewed by @PL8HNTR.RVA? Fill out this form.