'Out Of 007 Movie': Irvine Police Nab Car With License Plate Flipper

Lake Forest CA

19 May, 2022

9:37 PM

Description

IRVINE, CA — A Mercedes-Benz the Irvine Police Department seized on Tuesday was equipped with a gadget straight from a spy movie — a license plate flipper. Irvine police said on Wednesday it received a call about a suspicious Mercedes-Benz believed to be involved in a recent series of car burglaries. Officers stopped the car near the area of Harvard Avenue and Main Street. The license plate flipper was found during a search of the car, Irvine police said. "The suspect vehicle was something of [a] 007 movie," police said on social media. "Officers discovered a device that would flip the vehicle's license plate with the push of a button." The car had an "elaborate gas siphoning device" that directly transferred fuel into its gas tank, police added. Police said burglary tools, stolen property and "evidence of ID theft" were found in the car. The car's passengers, Yasmine Kambour, 37, and Chris Huynh, 44, were arrested on suspicion of car burglary, car theft, identity theft, possession of stolen property and possession of burglary tools, the Irvine Police Department said. Both Kambour and Huynh are Garden Grove residents.