Actually, they indicate the emission standard of a vehicle, but now a French environmental sticker has led to the conviction of a car thief.
It is becoming increasingly difficult for car thieves. A French environmental badge has helped to convict a motorist near Rouen of car theft. He had not considered that the car's registration number was repeated on the environmental sticker stuck to the windscreen. He tried to flee and hit a police car in the process, but was still caught. The 22-year-old could not explain where the car came from. He is now awaiting trial in October.
As a reminder: In the large French cities, environmental zones are gradually being set up in which you are only allowed to enter with the right sticker. But even in cities that are not so big, there are environmental zones that are activated in the event of particular pollution. There, too, you can only enter with the right sticker for the duration of the air pollution. The area of such a temporary zone is usually larger than the permanent zone in the big cities.
In the case of the car thief, he would have been better off removing the sticker from the windscreen, even if he would then no longer have been allowed to enter the next major city, Rouen. Hard times for car thieves thanks to environmental badge!