It was the middle of the night two Julys ago when Denise Crute awoke to a call from a neighbor: “Denise, you may want to come outside, the car behind yours is on fire.”

She figured she knew the car in question — her neighbor’s old beater. By the time she threw on some clothes and ran downstairs, it wasn’t safe to move her Honda SUV, said Crute, 72, of Baltimore’s Northwood neighborhood.

The fire from her neighbor’s car melted her taillights and charred the trunk — Crute’s insurance deemed it a total loss. And to make matters worse, the car that burst into flames didn’t have insurance.

It also had a Virginia license plate.

Crute is just one of the many victims of a common scofflaw scheme. Swarms of Marylanders have flocked to Virginia to register their vehicles, drawn by lower registration costs and laxer requirements. Until 2024, the state even allowed motorists to drive without auto insurance as long as they paid an annual fee.

Virginia does not require someone be a state resident to register their vehicle. Until that changes, all Maryland can do is toughen up its enforcement to recoup millions of dollars in lost registration fees and unpaid traffic violations. Those lost fees leave Marylanders who follow the rules paying more for roads and public transit.

Pending legislation in Annapolis would impose civil fines on vehicle owners until they properly register with Maryland’s MVA. If not compliant 120 days after a warning, authorities could impound the vehicle.

“Improper out-of-state registration shifts costs to law-abiding Marylanders, [and] it undermines local revenues that support road maintenance and transit,” said Del. Jackie Addison, a Baltimore Democrat and the bill’s lead sponsor, during a February hearing. The proposal “gives the MVA and local jurisdictions a tool that ensures all Maryland residents meet the same obligation.”

The proposed change, separate versions of which have passed the House of Delegates and Senate, also would authorize Maryland to enter reciprocity agreements with other state and local governments to enforce traffic citations, which would make it easier to collect on unpaid tickets from New York, Texas and other out-of-state plates on state roads.

Though Virginia now requires insurance, Maryland still loses as much as $12 million annually in registration fees due to lower costs to its south, according to the Motor Vehicle Administration. And data shows that owners of Virginia-tagged cars skirt Baltimore traffic safety rules at a disproportionately high rate.

Camila Barco, a spokesperson for the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, confirmed in an email that the state does not require residency for individuals applying for a vehicle title and registration. In an email, Jessica Cowardin, spokesperson for that state’s transportation department, confirmed “preliminary discussions over the years with Maryland” about a reciprocity agreement, and acknowledged Virginia lawmakers are considering further study of the issue.

As of October, the MVA identified more than 73,000 vehicles registered in Virginia to Maryland residents, a dip from the nearly 107,000 two years ago. New Marylanders are supposed to register their cars here within 60 days of moving.

In January, the MVA sent 58,000 letters to vehicle owners urging them to get right with Maryland law. About 22% of those contacted live in Baltimore.

But Maryland has few mechanisms to force compliance. A 2025 MVA report highlighted one alarming story in which state investigators confiscated two Virginia license plates from the vehicles of a Prince George’s County resident, who quickly replaced them with new Virginia tags.

There’s a proposal in Virginia’s legislature to study the issue, but there may not be a rush because the state is making money on vehicle taxes and registration fees from Maryland scofflaws.

A reciprocity agreement with Virginia would mean their DMV would help enforce fines and fees for traffic citations issued by Maryland.

David Broughton, a Maryland Department of Transportation spokesperson, said talks for such agreements are underway with Virginia and the District of Columbia, but they can’t be completed without the legislation.

In 2024 and 2025, a whopping 82% of automated red light and speeding tickets issued to Virginia-tagged cars in Baltimore went unpaid, compared to roughly 25% of violations from Maryland vehicles that also were outstanding in those years.

“A significant part of the purpose of having automated citations for speeding and red-light violations is to deter behavior,” testified Nina Themelis, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott’s director of government relations, in support of Addison’s bill.

“If residents with improperly registered vehicles are not faced with the need to pay for the violations they commit, then the behavioral deterrent has no impact.”

Of the 25 vehicles with the most unpaid ticket violations in Baltimore since 2024, 12 have Virginia license plates, according to data available through Open Baltimore. Those 12 vehicle owners owe more than $74,000 for a combined 1,650 unpaid tickets.

In 2025, nearly half of the more than 68,000 parking tickets issued in Baltimore were for vehicles registered in Virginia, Addison said.

In January, the Baltimore Police Department launched a new traffic unit focused on reducing crashes and bad driving behavior. Though having a Virginia license plate isn’t reason enough to pull someone over, the unit pays special attention to whether vehicles are improperly registered.

As of March 23, the unit has made 2,763 vehicle stops of cars with Virginia tags, resulting in more than 3,100 citations and 3,800 warnings, said Lindsey Eldridge, a Baltimore Police spokesperson. And 283 vehicles with Virginia tags have been towed, she added.

But until Virginia closes its residency loophole, the six or seven blue numbers and letters on those white VA plates will all communicate the same thing to Baltimoreans: Rules for thee, not for me.

Crute, who lost her CR-V to the Virginia tagged-car that caught fire, said she received about $6,600 from her insurance company after they totaled her car. It was not enough to cover the cost of a new used car, she said. And the insurance on her new car is twice that of her old one. She didn’t pursue a claim against her uninsured neighbor.

“I had to bite the bullet,” Crute said.