Plate Scanning Repo Prius? Check out these odd cameras on the hood!

[toyotafan]

I just saw the weirdest thing, a Prius driving around with four cameras mounted to the hood. One was facing sharp left one was slightly angled front left, one was slightly angled front right and the last one was facing sharp right.

I did a google search, & I came down with this image was looks identical to the Prius that I just saw. People say they're skinny license plates for repo man.

Edit: Like I said, I wasn't fast enough to get a photo myself, but I found these images posted by a member on vwvortex.com, what I saw looked very much just like this.

 

[toyotafan]

Here's a PR photo from WSJ of what one camera looks like.

 

[toyotafan]

Still thought this was odd

 

[tbplus10]

A car exactly like this drives around the area where I work about once a month. I asked the driver about the readers one day while at the local QT and he confirmed it was plate readers. He said depending on what they find some of the info is turned over to local law enforcement.

 

[toyotafan]

I've read they sell this data also if they see a plate that is there a lot they can use it for demographic travel info, or hunt for repos. Either way it's not an everyday sight