LOS ANGELES (KABC) - A personalized California license plate that appeared to mock last year's Oct. 7 attack on Israel has been misinterpreted and has a completely different meaning, according to the car owner's son.
The son, who wished to remain anonymous, spoke exclusively to Eyewitness News to clarify the meaning after a photo of the license plate went viral on social media, leading to an apology from the California Department of Motor Vehicles.
The plate read "LOLOCT7," with many interpreting the "LOL" as meaning "laugh out loud."
However, the car owner's son explained that the plate should be read in three parts: LOLO-CT-7.
The family is of Filipino descent, and as the son explained, "lolo" in Tagalog means grandfather. "CT" stands for Cybertruck - the car model - and "7" represents the seven grandchildren of the owner, he said.
In short, the license plate was an abbreviated way of saying that the owner is a grandfather, owns a Tesla Cybertruck, and has seven grandchildren.
"I think this is just a huge misunderstanding," the son stated.
He mentioned that they explained the meaning when they applied for the plate on the DMV's website.
"Whenever you apply for a vanity plate, you have to provide a description of what your plate means," he said.
The DMV apologized for the oversight that allowed something potentially offensive to slip through.
"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 a grave mistake never happens again."
The Cybertruck owner and his family are working to obtain new plates and wish to make it clear that they intended no harm.
"We have great empathy for anyone who has experienced hate," the son said. "And we would really appreciate, in turn, for anyone seeing or hearing this to have some empathy towards our family because we had no ill intent at all."