In high school, I knew a guy who wired a dashboard switch to his car's license plate light so that he could turn it off during nighttime "getaways" when he was out causing trouble. That's not as tricky as Orlando Payano, who the Transit Authority of New York and New Jersey accuse of rigging his tractor-trailer's license plate so that it flipped up when he sped through camera-equipped toll plazas without paying. Payano, charged with toll evasion and "license plate destruction," denies the allegations. From the Associated Press:
The Port Authority said driver Orlando Payano ran a cable from the license plate to the dashboard cigarette lighter inside the cab of the vehicle.
Pulling on the lighter flipped the plate under the truck.
Disappearing license plate (Yahoo! News)
