Illustration: Chen Xia/GT

"It is such a powerful deterrent that no one will dare to park here tomorrow without a license plate."

Some drivers have discovered an ingenious way to avoid getting parking tickets in the city. They simply remove the license plates from the cars before parking illegally. Without a plate number, traffic police officers had no way of identifying the owner of an illegally parked vehicle, leaving them unable to issue a parking ticket. On Tuesday, traffic police cited five drivers who removed their license plates and illegally parked on the sidewalk on Rongqiao Road in Pudong New Area. The traffic police countered the tactic by locking down each of the five cars with a wheel clamp - sometimes known as a parking boot. The device effectively immobilizes a vehicle, forcing its owner to go to the police to get it removed. All five drivers will have their licenses suspended and be fined 400 yuan ($63.84). They will have to take a remedial drivers exam before they can get their licenses reinstated. One of the drivers said he never thought the police would go to such lengths to catch parking offenders.